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IN ON THE HIT MAKER: FUGAZI’S JOE LALLY GOES SOLO 


things I 
predicted 
George W 
Bush 

would do in 
2006 but 


Listened To 
Songs of 2006, 
According to my 
Computer 


Semi-Insightful 

and/or 

Personally 

Constructive/ 

Deprecating Items 

NOTES FROJOHJERCROUND 

Receipts, Napkins, 
or Scraps of Paper 
in/around 2006 


thankfully fThings That 

didn’t songs I listened to Things Actually McldG 2006 

Things Punk Rock Could (Re) nOH-StOP that Were 0n TO-DO ..._ 

Software Movement released in 2006 J; is j ™ at 1 JJ® ver BCttOf 

recipes I learned or i n ° 2 oo 6 Un ° than 2005 

invented in 2006 Punkest Parenting Moments of 2006 

Trends I tried so hard to resist in 2006.1 failed 

LPs I bought this year that didn’t come out this year 

Events, Web Sites I’m Obsessed With favorite things i learned 
People, about myself and/or the 

Records’ *' ve shows that world in 2006 
Books, and reinvigorated my faith Headlines off 

Landmarks and in the state off music 2 ® 06 paired 

Touchstones of an( | p eop | e j n general * ith duotes 

Thin 9 s.A.ein 2006 from Sawyer, of 
things I read in 2006 the hit TV show 

Stupid/disturbing/offensive Sex Products of 2006 LOSt that SOUnd 

bands of 2006 ;^ s “ 9kiS an awful lot like 

that most people (every one a rocker— things George W 

... _ ... well, sorta) 

will pretend they Bush would say 

H0Y0y liked this Sugar-Filled Moments of the Year 

top 10 places to 
sniff out terrorists 


time next year, if 
they even admit to 
it now 


reasons why 
the Military 
Commissions 
Act of 2006 
is among the 
worst laws 
passed in 
American 
history 


jokes about fashion 
and monsters 


74470 


93297 


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mMSM 


FIGHTING RECORDS 


‘■6i/Ui©CeH| 


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w lucidrecords.net 


SPANISH BOMBS 
Spanish Bombs cdep 
chunksaah.com 


WHOLE WHEAT BREADA. 

Punk Life cdep y * ■* 
fightingrecords.com S 




















“THIS ADMINISTRATION IS A REAL 
MASTERMIND OF COOPTION AND 
OBFUSCATION AND LYING. THEY’R 
REAL GOOD AT IT. ” -FRIDA BERRIGAN 


9 Static 

Big charges for Kill Rock Stars; Writer 
RayKesey, artist Paul Butler, musician 
Shara Worden, and activist Gary 
Ruskin; And Starbucks joins the IWW. 

102 Columns 
IIO Fiction 
114 DIV Files 

Everything that Eats, Lives 

119 Reviews 

Music 

Books 

Comics 

Zjnes 

144 See Also 


Interviews 

24 Joe Lolly 
28 Frida Berrigart 
36 Dash Shaw 
40 Jeremy Enigk 
44 Freedom Archives 
48 Tara Jane O’Neil 

Top lOs 2006 

5 5 Your life, quantified: a look back at 
theyear that was, extensive use of 
numbers, lists, and jokes. 


Articles 

86 Dirty Talk 

Sex worker activism is both hot and 
powerful. Amanda Krupman reports. 

90 Factories Behind Bars 

There's a Gulag Econony at work in our 
nations prisons: does this privatized system of 
inmate labor do anyone any good ? 

94 Off With Their Heads 

A group of activists created a series of images 
that captured the imagination of the whole 
world—but fair use of copyrighted images 
doesn't mean everyone plays fair. 

By Dara Greenwald. 



















</) 

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volunteers & interns 

book reviews fleet 


GET IN CONTACT 

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Yes, that’s our office address. Please call first 
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Punk Planet is published six times a year by Independents’ Day Media 
(www.independentsdaymedia.com). All material in Punk Planet is printed 
with permission from the author. All opinions expressed are solely those 
of the author or interview subject and not those of Punk Planet magazine 
or Independents' Day Media. For reprint information, please contact 
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copyright & legalities 


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For a list of all upcoming ad deadlines or to pay with a credit 
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the risks 


2 PUNK PLANET 



■ t’s nice, when the days get short and the 

■ many days of the calendar sprawl out 

m behind you instead of ahead, to take a 
moment and reflect on the year that was. 
Sometimes, as November flips to Decem¬ 
ber, it can feel like the time can’t pass 
soon enough, like you’re in a race to the 
finish in a year you’re ready to see gone; 
other times each day marks a day closer 
to the end of a great year. Either way, the 
year ends as sure as the sun rises. 

For us at Punk Planet, 2006 has been a 
hard year—hardest in the many years we’ve 
been around, actually. The protracted 
battle over non-payments by our main dis¬ 
tributor that started last October took its 
toll as we battled a near-constant money 
crisis for 12 months (and while thank¬ 
fully, it is finally resolved, we’ll be feeling 
the wounds for some time). I for one will 
be glad to finally turn the last page in the 
calendar and see 2006 off, never to be 
repeated. It will be exciting to see where 
2007, our 13 th year of publishing, takes 
the magazine—up would be nice. 

While 2006 was a hard year finan¬ 
cially for the magazine, the dedicated and 
awesome staff, volunteers, writers, and 
designers here never let the very real un¬ 
certainties sneak onto the page. Through it 
all, we turned out some of the best issues in 
decades and for that I thank everyone in¬ 
volved in getting this year’s six issues out. 


intro77 


It was a hard year outside of these 
offices too. The world slowly caught fire 
as the wars fought around the globe bled 
across borders. Politics in the US contin¬ 
ued its shaky slide into neo-fascism with 
passage of laws condoning torture and 
laying waste to parts of the Constitution. 
And while the right wing was rocked by a 
deliciously vast array of scandals, it still 
managed to hold sway over vast tracts of 
the population. 

It’s with all that background (and a 
whole lot more depressing stuff as well) 
that I bring up how a funny thing hap¬ 
pened on the way to our cover story this 
issue. When we decided to dedicate this 
issue to lists of Top IOs of 2006, we were 
expecting—in part because it’s been a hard 
year—to get a pretty straightforward group 
of “iO Best” lists: 10 best records, IO best 
books, IO best people . . . Instead, as the 
lists started pouring in (so many, in fact, 
we couldn’t run them all in 26 pages), 
they were so unique and individual, so 
genre-busting, and so, well, funny, that it 
became a pleasure just to check e-mail in 
the morning. 

The compiled lists offer up a differ¬ 
ent view of 2006—a celebration of life, 
of culture, of dreams, and of the eternal 
resilience of an underground dedicated 
to innovation and resistance. As an added 
bonus, many of them are very, very funny. 


So enjoy them—we sure did. 

This issue also marks the addition of two 
fantastic new columnists to our ranks: Al¬ 
lison Wolfe and Elizabeth Crane. 

Allison, I’m sure many of you are 
familiar with—she’s been performing in 
bands and generally being a woman about 
the scene for some time now, starting with 
Bratmobile and continuing over the years 
to today, as singer of the band Partyline. 

Elizabeth starts her column this issue 
having written two amazing books, When 
the Messenger is Hot and All This Heavenly Gloiy. 
She’s got a way with words, and I’m glad to 
announce that in addition to her writing 
in Punk Planet, she’s also writing for Punk 
Planet Books—her collection of short sto¬ 
ries You Must Be This Happy to Enter will be out 
later in 200 J. 

Welcome to both of them! 

And welcome to you, reader, to the first 
issue of a very welcome new year. 

PS. Apologies to contributors Tom 
Kaczynski and Eugenia Williamson who 
inadvertently had their last names man¬ 
gled in issues 75 an< ^ 7^ respectively. 

How embarrassing! 




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“I’m a little surprised that 
people think everything is 
changing now that Slim is 
leaving.” 

AFTER A SERIES OF SHAKE-UPS, IS THE FUTURE OF 
KILL ROCK STARS—ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL 
UNDERGROUND LABELS—IN DOUBT? 


n a Kill Rock Stars staff 
meeting last June, label 
founder Slim Moon an¬ 
nounced that he and Por¬ 
tia Sabin—his wife, business 
partner, and an anthropology 
professor at the University 
of Washington—were moving 
from the label’s birthplace of 
Olympia, Washington to Se¬ 
attle. He promised the label’s 
staff that everything else 
would stay the same. And with 
the US fighting at least two 
wars, conservative ideology 
continuing to hold sway over 
the nation, and corporate 
rock about as exciting as 
a washcloth, surely KRS— 
one of the largest, most ex¬ 
perimental, and most consis¬ 
tently leftist, feminist, anti¬ 
corporate, anti-war labels in 
existence—wasn’t going any¬ 
where , right? 


Wrong. Much to the 
surprise of fans of the la¬ 
bel (and an even bigger 
one to many of the label’s 
employees), the only con¬ 
stant at KRS since Moon’s 
announcement has been 
change—change that has left 
some without jobs, those re¬ 
maining spread across the 
US, and the future of one of 
the underground’s most in¬ 
fluential labels is anything 
but certain. 

The changes began on Au¬ 
gust 30 when Moon made an¬ 
other announcement: Sabin had 
quit her job at UW, the couple 
was now moving to Portland, 
and the label was planning some 
“restructuring,” marketing- 
and promotions-wise. The new 
plan was for Moon, Sabin, and 
longtime A&R rep Maggie Vail 
to divvy up the entire KRS ros¬ 


ter among themselves. Then, 
each person would have specific 
duties, like licensing or bud¬ 
gets, for the label as a whole. 
Maggie would move to Port¬ 
land, and Tobi Vail, current 
mailorder manager, would hold 
down the fort in Olympia. 

Four people were affect¬ 
ed by the restructure. Two 
were laid off, one was told his 
hours would dwindle, and 
another was told she was con¬ 
ditionally laid off but could 
keep her job if she moved to 
Portland. Moon offered four 
months’ severance and job 
recommendations to the for¬ 
mer staffers. (On the flip- 
side, another eight people at 
the label saw no change in 
hours or status.) 

Another casualty of the 
restructuring, Moon an¬ 
nounced, is KRS’s sister label 
5 Rue Christine (5RC), home 
to avant-overground bands 
like Deerhoof and Hella. Some 
of these bands will undoubt - 
ably move to KRS (Xiu Xiu has 
releases on both labels anyway) 
and others will find new homes. 

But shit gets weirder. In 
mid-September, a few weeks 
before their planned move to 


Portland, Moon and Sabin an¬ 
nounced that they were mov¬ 
ing to New York City instead. 
That wasn’t the only bomb¬ 
shell: the move was because 
Moon had accepted an A&R 
job at Nonesuch Records, and 
as a result Sabin would be tak¬ 
ing over as KRS President. 
(Moon declined to be inter¬ 
viewed for this article as a show 
of confidence for Sabin.) 

Sonically, this is a pretty 
big jump for Moon. The Kill 
Rock Stars roster is rooted 
in Riot Girl bands (Bi¬ 
kini Kill), big-fish indies 
(the Decemberists), and the 
musique concrete of 5RC, 
while Nonesuch is largely a 
world music/alt-country la¬ 
bel, known for artists like 
Emmylou Harris, Youssou 
N’Dour, Wilco, and the Mag¬ 
netic Fields (who aren’t really 
world or alt-country, but you 
get the point). 

But while the mu¬ 
sic of Nonesuch may seem 
like a departure for Moon, 
politically, the jump is an 
even bigger one. Kill Rock 
Stars has been independent 
since Day One, 1991, when 
it released its first single, a 


PUNK PLANET 9 
















“Strings and drums—they 
are natural enemies” 

FOR MUSICIAN SHARA WORDEN WORKS TO BRIDGE 
THE GAP BETWEEN CLASSICAL MUSIC AND ROCK 

A year ago, Shara Worden’s biggest claim to fame was singing and playing 
in Sufjan Stevens’ band—duties that included dressing up as a cheer¬ 
leader for the lllinoise tour. Worden, a classically trained singer from a family 
of musicians, has now emerged as a formidable talent in her own right. Bring 
Me the Workhorse, the debut album by her band My Brightest Diamond, is 
both dramatic and intimate, combining tense rhythms reminiscent of PJ Har¬ 
vey with sophisticated string-quartet arrangements. After doing her sound 
check for a recent concert at Chicago’s Riviera Theatre, where she was open¬ 
ing for Stevens, Worden took some time for a backstage interview. 

When did you start performing music? 

I started playing piano when I was around eight. My uncle taught 
me. I’ve been performing since I was a kid. 

Would someone listening to My Brightest Diamond recognize you in the 
songs you wrote in high school? 

Not at all. [Sings.] “Keep the flame burning and soon it will be a 
fire spreading through our hearts, you are my desire.” Awful. Pop 
ballads. Romantic torture. 


spoken-word split featuring 
Moon and Kathleen Hanna. 
“The system that makes rock 
stars wants us to believe that 
we have no choices except the 
handful they give us,” reads 
the KRS mission statement, 
“but they don’t even bother 
to give us good choices, just 
lame ones. KRS just wants 
to give you some good stuff 
to listen to that actually 
means something to coun¬ 
teract the empty and boring 
stuff you see on Total Request 
Live or whatever.” In contrast, 
Nonesuch is subsidized by 
media giant Time Warner. 

On the one hand, Moon 
is taking a pretty plum post, 
especially because Nonesuch is 
creating the position just for 
him. It’s a steady job, a shake- 
up from the routine in Olym¬ 


pia, where he’s been living and 
working for over two decades, 
and also a chance to diversify. 
At Nonesuch, Moon could woo 
a variety of different artists 
that might not necessarily be 
interested in a smaller label 
like Kill Rock Stars, and on 
the flipside he could offer a 
wider visibility to “truly punk” 
artists—if they want it. 

Of course, there’s no 
way to ignore the fact that his 
paycheck is enabled, at least 
in part, by some ethically 
yucky situations. 

Predictably, there’s much 
message-board buzz about 
whether or not Moon sold out 
but, Sabin argues, “Americans 
can’t get up in the morning 
and think, ‘I’m off the grid, 

I’m a non-consumer.’ [In this 
country,] being independent is 


just a different form of being 
a consumer.” Sure the average 
I2-year-old punk, picking out 
Melvins riffs as she mooches 
from her parents’ pantry might 
not understand this, but, the 
argument goes, all Americans 
use money, somehow. So the 
question worth asking isn’t, 
should I use it? but, how do I? and, 
who should I do it with ? 

Sabin pares it down even 
more: “Someone who is punk 
can still be a complete dick 
who is ripping you off. And 
major labels can be selling 
out corporate rock whores or 
whatever, but they can also 
be really genuine wonderful 
people who respect you and 
your art. You have to look at 
the people, too.” 

The people left at Kill 
Rock Stars —Sabin in New 


York, Maggie in Portland, Tobi 
in Olympia, and accountant 
Nard Mullan working from 
her home in Yelm, Washing¬ 
ton— vow to keep the label run¬ 
ning consistent with its roots. 
That’ll be easy, because they 
grew them in the first place. 

Sabin is a drummer who 
founded Shotclock Manage¬ 
ment (they represent the 
Gossip and Thao Nguyen, 
among others), and a co¬ 
owner of Kill Rock Stars, 
where she’s worked in both 
A&R and artist management 
since 2001. Tobi and Mag¬ 
gie Vail have both been staff 
members for over 13 years, 
which is just two less than the 
label’s entire existence. 

“I’m little surprised that 
people think everything is 
changing now that Slim is 


10 PUNK PLANET 








static PP76 


How did you go from that to the music you’re doing now? 

I wasn’t one of those people that found my voice instantly. I’m interest¬ 
ed in so many kinds of music that it’s been really difficult for me to fo¬ 
cus in on something. I go through periods where I write a lot of tunes 
and get to a certain point and then decide, “This isn’t where I want to 
be.” And then I go study string arranging for a year and a half. 

Which musicians influenced you? 

Jeff Buckley was probably the biggest transition. Hearing him was 
a really, really big turning point. I was living five years in Michi¬ 
gan, so I was hearing Motown, R&B, Stevie Wonder, Prince—then 
hearing Jeff, who was doing Benjamin Britten, Nina Simone, and 
Leonard Cohen with his crazy, amazing voice, burning together 
all these elements. 

Did you want to be an opera singer? 

I’ve always thought that would be part of my life. I still study clas¬ 
sical music, privately. Whenever I’m home in New York, I have a 
lesson every week. 

Did you start My Brightest Diamond with the idea of merging classi¬ 
cal and pop? 

Yeah, absolutely. It was to find out what is the potential relation¬ 
ship between strings and drums—they are natural enemies. The 
way that I resolved that was by making two records at the same 


time. In Bring Me the Workhorse, the drums win. In the next record, 

I really am trying to obscure that relationship so that the strings 
have a more primary function. 

How was the music of your first band, Awry, different from My Bright¬ 
est Diamond? 

My singing style was really different, more like an opera person 
who’s starting to do pop music. I really don’t want to sound that way. 

What did you change? 

It’s called singing off the voice, where you’re not singing full tones 
as much. It’s more speaking-oriented . . . I’m trying aggressively 
to work on different emotional colors, so there’s screaming and 
whispering, wailing and moaning, and laughing. 

And where does the name My Brightest Diamond come from? 

I wrote a tune called “The Brightest Diamond,” that’s going to be 
on the next record. It started out very personal, and then it be¬ 
came more of a metaphor. I felt like I had this person who was this 
really secret diamond in my closet or my pocket, and I was walking 
around not showing it to anyone, because no one would believe 
it’s real. I started writing this tune about that idea. I’m bringing 
something from a private space and showing you something that s 
precious to me. —RobertLoerzel 
Visit www.mybrightestdiamond.com for more information. 


“We wait till we go to the 
United States, I’m pretty 
sure it’s going be some kind 
of culinary revolution for us.” 

FRENCH PUNK BAND THE HATEPINKS DON’T 


leaving,” Tobi Vail says. “In 
actuality, the label has always 
been more than one person 
... I wonder if some of the 
backlash is because people see 
Slim as ‘the man in charge’ 
and he is leaving his job to be 
replaced by a woman.” Zing. 

Whatever the cause for 
trepidation by the labels’ 
fanbase, the staff is ready to 
move the label forward—and 
to stay consistent with the ide¬ 
als Moon founded it with. As 
this article goes to press, the 
revamped KRS staff has just 
finished its first board meet¬ 
ing. “We were sitting around 
the table,” remembers Sabin, 
“and we realized that we re all 
women. In a way, it’s the cul¬ 
mination of Slim’s feminist 
vision.” —Mairead Case 
Billy Bullock and Justin Hamacher contributed to this article. 


ACTUALLY HATE PINK 

I am not planning to annoy you 
with the same repeated cliches 
about the Hatepinks over and 
over again, so I won't tell you 
about skinny ties, wavy colors, 
the year 1977, and testicle-cut¬ 
ting, skin-tight jeans. In fact, 
despite one damaging trip there, 

I have forgiven the French people 
entirely because of one incident 
in the year 2003 when the Hat¬ 
epinks released their first 7” split 
with the Distraction. Since that 
day, I just cannot stop spend¬ 
ing money on records by the 
Hatepinks instead of wasting it 


on food. You see, it happened 
to me like an accident. Sehr Gut 
Rock'n'Roll with real-life lyrics 
about parasites like you and me 
played with a nice dominating 
clap on the old ass of the Angry 
Samoans; or to put it more sim¬ 
ply, the musical counterpart to 
Zinedine Zidane in the World Cup 
Finals of 2006. 

One thing about French people 
is that they do often have very 
funny names like Jean-Pierre, 
Luc, or Richard. What are your 
names and in what way are they 


connected with the instruments 
you play? 

Our real names are: Olivier, 
Remi, Nasser, and Hugges. I 
don’t think these are funny 
names. Remi turned his name 
into Remi der Pinkbeat. He is 
the drummer, Olivier Gasoil, 
singer, no connection. Colo¬ 
nel Nass Le Pink, no connec¬ 
tion with his bass, and Huggie 
Von Pinkbird, guitar, no con¬ 
nection with the instrument. 

When I was in the south of 
France once with a friend of 
mine, we did plan to eat some 
fine French food but all we got 
was old baguette and expensive 
beer. How can we do better next 
time and is wine better than 
beer? 

Yes, wine is better than beer, 
that’s for sure. Try some Turk- 


PUNK PLANET 11 





Iceberg Town 


BY JOE MENO AND NICK BUTCHER 


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ish Donner Kebab and add 
some Camembert, it’s the best 
French food you can get. We 
wait till we go to the United 
States, I’m pretty sure it’s go¬ 
ing be some kind of culinary 
revolution for us. We heard 
they eat fried fat. 

Tell me about the band and 
about your hate for the color 
pink. 

We formed the Hatepinks right 
after the end of my band, the 
Gasolheads. It was three years 
ago. We don’t really hate pink. 
It’s just a bad decision to have 
taken this name. Some dumb 
people in a German squat 
even asked us if our name was 
homophobic. 

For sure you know that the 
French are the biggest enemy of 
the United States after Al- 
Quaida, because of that they 


decided to change the name of 
French fries to “freedom fries.” 
What will you do to get back 
your fries and to increase sales? 

Whaaaat? I think you ask the 
right question to the wrong 
person. 

How about the importance of the 
word Motherfuquer for the French 


ary Ruskin, Executive 
Director of Commercial 
Alert—a nonprofit organiza¬ 
tion founded by Ralph Nader 
in 1998 to keep the commer¬ 
cial culture within its proper 
sphere—has made it his life’s 
work to prevent companies 
from exploiting the higher 


language and maybe do you know 
a reason why no one is saying Pa- 
pafuquer? 

I don’t know why nobody says Pa- 
pafuquer . . . Are you trying to 
make a fool out of me? I feel this 
interview is going nowhere. 

—Dirk Klotzbach 

Fead more at http://hatepinks.free.fr This piece originally 
appeared in Sunday Stripper line (Germany) in April 2006. 


values of education, com¬ 
munity, and democracy. One 
of his major campaigns has 
been to stop what he calls the 
“in-school marketing pro¬ 
gram” known as Primedia 
Inc.’s Channel One Network, 
which broadcasts two minutes 
of advertising and IO minutes 


of “content” to approximately 
77 million young people in 
schools across the US. Despite 
Commercial Alert’s various 
efforts against the network, 
including a 2001 letter-writ¬ 
ing initiative by a coalition 
comprised of both conservative 
and progressive organizations 
(eg, the American Family As¬ 
sociation, the United Method¬ 
ist Church, Focus on the Fam¬ 
ily, and Mothering magazine), as 
well as a more recent Schools 
Not Shopping Malls awareness 
campaign, Ruskin says that his 
Channel One-related work has 
received less media attention 
than other efforts. 

“I think of all the public 
interest issues that I’ve worked 
on my entire life—hundreds 
and hundreds of issues—the one 
that’s gotten the least amount of 
news coverage, compared to my 


Activists Under Attack 

COMMERCIAL ALERT’S CHANNEL ONE CHARGES SET 
OFF DISGRACED LOBBYIST JACK ABRAMOFF 



12 PUNK PLANET 











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other work, is Channel One,” 
Ruskin tells Punk Planet. “I don’t 
know why. I really don’t.” 

So it was with a great deal of 
shock that Ruskin recently read 
in the news just how much some 
of Channel One’s chief support¬ 
ers feared his campaign, and 
how notoriously corrupt lobby¬ 
ist Jack Abramoff had targeted 
Ruskin in particular. An Octo¬ 
ber 2006 report by the Senate 
finance committee investigating 
Abramoff’s use of tax-exempt 
organizations includes a set of 
e-mails that zero in on Ruskin. 
The report (which can be read in 
full online) contains an e-mail 
from Abramoff’s colleague Den¬ 
nis Stephens to Chad Cowan 
(CCd to Jack Abramoff): 

“Have you ever guys ever 
looked into Gary Ruskin, a 
Nader protege who runs Com¬ 
mercial Alert (which is attacking 


Channel One, our client) . . . 
The guy is a weasel,” the e-mail 
states. 

Amy Berger, another 
Abramoff colleague, replies: 
“Jeff [Ballabon, VP of Chan¬ 
nel One] just raised this with 
me. He said, why aren’t you 
guys doing more on Ruskin? 
Please move ahead with this!” 

The report details other 
ways Abramoff worked on be¬ 
half of Channel One, argu¬ 
ing to detractors that it offered 
tax savings for state and federal 
governments. In an e-mail to 
Grover Norquist, founder of 
Americans for Tax Reform, he 
wrote: “Arianna Huffington 
has now joined Ralph Nader 
and George Miller in attack¬ 
ing Channel One . . . We want 
to write an op-ed which smacks 
her big time, and also swipes at 
Nader’s guy and the other loo¬ 


nies on this . . .” Abramoff then 
paid Norquist to publish an op¬ 
ed in the Washington Times, titled 
“Tuning in to Channel One,” 
which “smacked” and “swiped” 
at the ever-growing coalition 
opposing Channel One. 

Although Ruskin had no 
idea that such personally at¬ 
tacking e-mail exchanges were 
taking place, he has long been 
aware of the forces of big money 
and corrupt politics that threat¬ 
en campaigns like Schools Not 
Shopping Malls. “I also work 
on the Congressional Account¬ 
ability Project, so I’ve watched 
Abramoff work for a long time 
and seen his ability to fund his 
ideological allies,” says Ruskin. 
“They were powerful folks, and 
some of them still are.” 

Even so, Commercial 
Alert continues, undeterred, 
to encourage citizens to resist 


the infiltration of advertise¬ 
ments in our schools. In the 
case of Channel One, even 
before this Senate finance 
committee report appeared, 
the company was already losing 
funding and viewership. Ac¬ 
cording to Ruskin, “Channel 
One is in rough shape. They’ve 
always been heavily depen¬ 
dent on their lobbyists to stay 
in schools. This year, three of 
their lobbyists have pled guilty 
to corruption in the Abramoff 
scandal. They’re losing viewers 
and they’re losing ad revenue.” 

Yet the effort to keep 
schools ad-free zones is ongo¬ 
ing, and activists like Ruskin 
urge us to tune in. “Help us to 
keep fighting for a world where 
children are more important 
than corporate profits,” he 
says. —Laura Pearson 
Check out: www.commercialalert.org. 


PUNK PLANET 13 






























“I didn’t realize I was doing 
performance and installation 
work—all the things I hate.” 

PAUL BUTLER’S ROVING COLLAGE PARTIES AND 
ONLINE GALLERY PROVE WINNIPEG’S AN ART 
CENTER AFTER ALL 

H e sits down at the table with a wry smile. Keeping eye contact, Paul 
Butler slowly unzips his sweater. With both hands, he rips it open 
to reveal his chest. His T-shirt says: Winnipeg. Butler makes collages, 
helps Winnipeg artists show their work at his gallery, and never stops 
traveling the world as a host to his collage parties. He makes art that truly 
takes a life of its own. All this and Paul Butler is still a really nice guy. 

When did you get into making collages? 

I partied my whole way through ACA [Alberta College of Art and 
Design], I was the head of the fundraising department, and we’d 
have crazy karaoke parties. To advertise these karaoke parties, I 
made collage posters and put them up around campus. But my col¬ 
lage posters got stolen. My profs suggest I explore collage after my 
posters were stolen, and why they were stolen. They thought it was 
interesting they were so popular, and that I should explore collage 
because of that. 


“Humor’s always been around 
to serve as psychic armor.” 

ROY KESEY, WRITER, IS MORE THAN JUST A 
PERUVIAN DIPLOMAT’S HUSBAND 


S eemingly apropos of nothing, 
Roy Kesey’s novella Nothing 
In The World has a lovely painting 
of a pear on the cover. Nothing 
depicts in deceptively simple but 
gorgeous prose the transformation 
of a young Croatian from school¬ 
boy to war hero. A pear figures 
in. Published by the independent 
Bullfight Media, Kesey submit¬ 
ted the book as part of a contest 
and modestly claims that “the 
judge was kind enough to find 
it worthy." Kesey's dispatches, 
on the McSweeney’s website, 
“From an American Guy Married 
to a Peruvian Diplomat Living in 
China” are worth checking out to 
get an idea of his very specific 


existence as such, but also for his 
unique sense of humor, which is 
more subtle in the novella than 
in the dispatches, because, you 
know, it’s about war. He’s also an 
accomplished short story writer, 
having published in numerous 
journals including Other Voices, 
The Iowa Review, and The Land- 
Grant College Review, but not, 
as he points out elsewhere, Tin 
House, The Paris Review and 
quite a few others, to which he 
says “Attention All Editors Who 
Are Dying To Get Their Magazines 
On This List: / cannot be bought. 

I can, however, be rented by the 
hour, the half-hour, or the 15- 
minute period. Have your people 


contact my people, preferably via 
electro-chemical telegraph, be¬ 
cause those were cool.” 

I understand you spent some 
time in Croatia during the war 
and wonder how your experi¬ 
ences might have shaped the 
story and the feeling of this 
book. Although the book is set in 
recent history, you somehow cre¬ 
ated a timeless world, with few 
references to modern things—so 
much so that when they did 
come up it was almost startling 
to see the words “Toyota” and 
“radio” on the same page. 

I was in Croatia in the sum¬ 
mers of 1990, ‘92 and ‘93. 

One of the interesting things 
about places like Croatia in 
the early ‘90s was seeing, say, 
a farmer plowing his field not 
with a tractor but with an ac¬ 


tual horse pulling an actual 
plow. . . and then hearing a 
little electronic tweedle, and 
watching the farmer pull out 
his cell phone. Of course, 
in fiction that kind of thing 
can easily turn into a useless 
sort of us vs. them exoticism 
unless it’s pointed somewhere 
interesting. So I was think¬ 
ing about that, and also about 
possible ways to bring the now- 
ness, the this-could-happen- 
again-any-dayness of the war 
into focus, and at some point 
I hit on the idea of using a 
diction and a pace that drops 
the reader into what is basi¬ 
cally a medieval, distant world 
for long stretches at a time, 
and then letting a word like 
“Toyota” strike from nowhere, 
bringing the reader back to 
right-this-minute. I guess I’ve 
always been interested in how 


14 PUNK PLANET 











static PP77 


How did you come up with the idea of the collage party? 

In 1998, right after I graduated, I sat down to my new studio and I 
said to myself: “Well, I got my sharpened pencils and I’m all ready 
to go . . . wait a second—I’m bored and lonely.” I started the col¬ 
lage parties after I graduated and got a massive studio with mostly 
musicians, and we ended up having a lot of floor parties. I realized 
I had tons of leftover magazines; my whole bedroom in my parent’s 
basement was covered in GQ, Details, Rolling Stone, Circus, Kerrang, and 
so I wanted to do something with them. 

What’s it like partying in Winnipeg? 

Back then we’d make a big tape ball, and play drunken, aggres¬ 
sive soccer. We’d get carpet burns and play loud music on Princess 
Street. Even though all this was happening while making collages, 
I still didn’t recognize it as a Collage Party. I did a few more and a 
friend of mine was taking a curatorial class at Goldsmith College 
in London, England and for their end of year party they invited me 
to have a Collage Party at the school. That’s when my grant council 
said: “Recognize this is a part of your practice.” I didn’t realize I was 
doing performance and installation work—all the things I hate. I 
was the last one to recognize it. 

How have your collage parties evolved? 

It’s an activity people can participate in because it’s a reactionary 
thing—cutting up mass media. I mostly play host, although it’s my stu¬ 


dio too. The only time I get to make artwork is actually at the Collage 
Parties. But I don’t get to participate anymore. Now they’re invita¬ 
tional and curated for a decent amount of time, five days for example, 
of public and private Collage Parties. It’s exclusionary because I don’t 
want artists to feel like they’re in a zoo being watched by the public. 

You started an online exhibition space called the Other Gallery. How 
did that come about? 

The Other Gallery was a show before it was a website. I was living in 
Winnipeg but showing in Toronto because I thought and accepted 
that Winnipeg was a blue-collar town and that they don t buy art 
here. I wanted to prove it wouldn’t work, because then it would be 
against what my dad said. I don’t really direct the gallery, I let it 
evolve. I go to the viewers because people won’t come to Winnipeg. 

William Zinmer from the New York Times said your work’s success 
“proves the value of a simple idea.” Why do you favor simplicity? 

It’s simpler and slower in Winnipeg—big skies and long winters. 
There’s less entertainment and attraction. Everyone has a long, sim¬ 
ple work ethic. We develop studio practice because there’s nothingtodo 
in the winter. We make art for ourselves and each other. Not making 
it to fit into some slice of art real estate. I believe that art should be 
simple because it’s the best way to communicate to the wide spectrum 
of people. —Nadja Sayej 
Find the Other Gallery online at www.othergallery.com. 


re-contexted words can have 
uncommon power, and how we 
can use that power. 

I heard Martin Amis say some¬ 
thing in an interview recently 
that seemed extremely relevant 
to this story. He said, “It’s a 
secret no longer well-kept that 
killing is an absolutely joyous ex¬ 
perience, especially to the pow¬ 
erless . . . Don’t underestimate 
what an intense pleasure this is 
for people who feel themselves 
oppressed.” 

Wow. Jagged, isn’t it. And it 
folds in really well with Canet- 
ti’s observations in Crowds and 
Power about the command as 
the source of all evil, and the 
“stings,” as he calls them, that 
accumulate in us each time we 
are given a command we can¬ 
not or dare not disobey, and 
how those stings are almost 


impossible to extract, and keep 
pumping their venom in until 
we are for all intents and pur¬ 
poses pathological . . . and then 
suddenly we are given a bit of 
power by some political or mil¬ 
itary leader—often, it seems, 
at least in modern times, by 
a psychotically nationalistic 
one with a thing for slaugh¬ 
ter. And he hands us smart 
bombs, or a Mauser, or a ma¬ 
chete, and oh how free we feel 
when we are set loose. 

Life as the husband of a Peruvian 
diplomat has landed you in sev¬ 
eral interesting locations around 
the world. How do you make 
a home somewhere when you 
know there’s an end in sight? 

Beijing is our first post 
abroad, the first place I’ve 
lived specifically because of 
my wife’s job. All the other 


meandering was on my own 
dime. The end, well, yes, it’s 
always in sight, but five years 
is a long time—long enough 
to forget about the end most 
days. The idea of spending my 
life in many places—in chunks 
of time long enough to get a 
decent job and dig into the 
local soil to a certain depth, 
but short enough not to get 
bored—is something I chose 
20 years ago. It’s just the way I 
like my apples sliced, I guess. 

Although no one would call this 
book a laugh-riot, I found myself 
chuckling more than a few times 
and wondered how you were 
able to balance a subtle humor 
with such a serious subject. 

Well, humor’s always been 
around to serve as psychic 


armor, of course, and lots of 
writers have tapped into that 
before me—I love the things 
Tim O’Brien did with it in The 
Things They Carried, for example. 
And it has relevance, I think, 
at all levels—for the writer, the 
reader, the characters. Humor 
is all about unexpected dis¬ 
junction, and there’s noth¬ 
ing more disjunctive than war. 
There were days in Croatia 
when there was a funeral in the 
morning and a birthday party 
at night, with more or less the 
same people at both. And those 
birthday parties were not quiet 
or somber affairs—they were 
great grinding orgies of very 
drunk laughter. That laughter 
was not wholly sane. But it felt 
really, really good. 

—Elizabeth Crane 


Read the dispatches-www.mcsweeneys.net/links/keseydispatches-or go on and buy the book at Nothingintheworld.com. 


PUNK PLANET 15 






“Back in the day, she 
was selling stuff at flea 
markets, like Michael 
Jackson buttons and eel 
skin wallets.” 

Chicago's nicelena—aka lena kim—first learned 

THE CRAFT OF DIY BUSINESS FROM HER MOM 

I n this arts-and-craftsy age, it seems that everyone possesses some 
kind of DIY (or DIH: Do it Herself) talent: crocheting wrist-warmers, 
batiking paper, making bookshelves out of bottle caps, coming up with 
creative ways to not pay parking tickets, etc. But few people have as 
crafty a background—not to mention as active an imagination—as Chi¬ 
cago-based designer Lena Kim. 

Growing up in Korea, Kim entertained herself with ambitious projects 
like crushing red flowers into dye to make fingernail polish or affixing a 
lawn mower engine to a mini bike found in the trash. Later she moved on 
to painting and jewelry making, eventually transforming her skills into a 
successful business called niceLena. 

Now her nice items—ranging from earrings (made of variously print- 


“The company is finding 
it more difficult to uphold 
its artificial ‘worker 
friendly’ image.” 

EMPLOYEES AT SEVEN STARBUCKS ACROSS THE US 
HAVE JOINED THE INTERNATIONAL WORKERS OF 
THE WORLD, BUT THE COMPANY IS SLOW TO 
ACKNOWLEDGE THE UNION 


^^^kur success depends on 
V^your success,” reads the 
first sentence of the Star- 
bucks career info brochure. 
The company’s management 
refers to all of its employ¬ 
ees as “partners.” Starbucks 
boasts comprehensive health 
care coverage, a retirement 
plan, a discount stock purchase 
plan—even domestic partner 
benefits and an adoption assis¬ 
tance program. Yet since May 
of 2004, a growing group of 
Starbucks employees has been 
working to organize the com¬ 


pany under the global labor 
union Industrial Workers of 
the World (IWW), holding that 
Starbucks’ starvation wages and 
lack of employee security make 
it as bad as—or worse than—any 
big multinational. Efforts have 
escalated rapidly in the last few 
months: at the end of August, 
workers at a Chicago Starbucks 
shop declared membership 
in the IWW Starbucks Work¬ 
ers Union (SWU), making it 
the seventh unionized Star- 
bucks in the United States, and 
unionized shops in New York 


have amped up demands to im¬ 
prove employee conditions. 

Why are these “partners” 
stirring up such a fuss? Well, 
partners or not, Starbucks 
baristas are pulling in a pov¬ 
erty wage—starting at $6-8 an 
hour, depending on location. 
And despite the company’s 
sparkling image, most Star- 
bucks employees never receive 
any of the promised benefits, 
explains former Starbucks 
employee Daniel Gross, who 
was recently fired for his 
efforts to unionize workers 
in New York over the past 
three years. 

“Every single Star- 
bucks barista is part-time,” 
Gross says. “Starbucks CEO 
Howard Schultz pioneered 
the IOO-percent part-time 
model.” Since workers are 
never granted full-time sta¬ 
tus or guaranteed a number 
of hours, many do not make 


the ^O^our-per-quarter 
cutoff necessary to purchase 
insurance. Of those that do 
qualify, many don’t buy: with 
such a meager paycheck, most 
baristas don’t have enough 
money left over after shelling 
out for rent and food. 

“Despite anointing it¬ 
self as a leader in health care, 
Starbucks insures a lower 
percentage of employees than 
Wal-Mart, which is rightly 
condemned for its insurance 
policies,” Gross says. “Star- 
bucks workers came together 
to get affordable health care.” 

Additionally, union orga¬ 
nizers complain that Starbucks 
understaffs its shops, putting 
undue strain on its employees 
and leading to health prob¬ 
lems; employees suffer from 
an unusually high rate of car¬ 
pal tunnel syndrome and re¬ 
petitive stress injuries. 

The latest unionized 


16 PUNK PLANET 












static PP77 


ed paper, fused onto patina metal shapes, and layered with glaze) to deco¬ 
rative pins, necklaces, bracelets, and cuffs—are available at a number of 
boutiques and craft fairs around the US, as well as online at niceLena. 
com. I spoke with the energetic Ms. Kim about her artistic beginnings, 
eel skin wallets, and future DIY endeavors. 

How did you get your start as an artist, designer, and crafter? 

I always wanted to be a part of the art world, as far back as I can re¬ 
member, but that’s not saying a lot, ‘cause I have a horrible mem¬ 
ory! But probably since age six. I grew up poor in Korea and all we 
had was rice and cabbage. I used to cut out people from magazines 
and draw clothes for them to make paper dolls. I grew up without 
much, so I really had to be creative. 

Did you always intend to have your own business? 

It’s always been my dream to support myself through the arts. My 
mom is an entrepreneur and runs her own business. Back in the 
day, she was selling stuff at flea markets, like Michael Jackson but¬ 
tons and eel skin wallets. She had a hot-dog stand once too. So I 
got my selling side from her. Wanna buy some meat? 

What sorts of tasks are involved in starting and maintaining a DIY busi¬ 
ness like niceLena? 


It’s so much work! I make every single piece myself, so I might be at 
my table cutting tiny circles out of paper for seven hours straight. 

I also handle promotion—taking pictures, sending out e-mails to 
potential new stores, etc.—to the point it feels like I’m a telemar¬ 
keter. Plus I do the packing and shipping. 

Your pieces incorporate everything from origami prints and Korean 
playing cards to images of camping and clouds. What inspires your 
designs? 

I love prints and am heavily influenced by Korean and Japanese 
folk art. I like using nontraditional materials and methods for 
jewelry making. Not to sound too high art, but I see some of my 
stuff as miniature paintings or collages. Korea is very mountain¬ 
ous, and I spent much of my childhood just playing all day in 
fields and forests. I like taking elements from nature and placing 
them in an abstract form. I enjoy imagining the customer wearing 
my stuff and it becoming a part of their environment. 

Are you currently working on any other DIY projects? 

I’d like to organize a group of street vendors selling handmade 
goods on bikes or out of popsicle carts. Everyone would have a 
sash, so the group would be easily recognizable. —Laura Pearson 
View the bracelets, ties, and earrings—and some stuff with pictures of hot dogs!—at www.nicelena.com. 


Starbucks, a shop in Chicago’s 
Logan Square, has made work¬ 
er safety a particular focus of 
its campaign. In a pointed- 
yet-subtle direct action several 
months ago, Logan Square 
baristas bought a stepladder— 
an item for which they’d asked 
the management repeatedly 
over the past few years—and 
branded it with a sticker read¬ 
ing, “Brought to you by IWW 
Starbucks Workers Union for 
a safer, healthier workplace.” 
Within an hour of workers 
placing the IWW ladder in the 
store, management bought 
them a similar stepladder to 
replace it—a purchase they’d 
long refused to make. 

Through creative actions 
like this one, organizers at the 
seven unionized Starbucks 
have attained higher wages and 
greater job security, addressed 
religious discrimination 
complaints, and convinced 


management to clear up a rat 
infestation at a New York shop. 
In mid-October, starting pay 
for baristas was upped from 
$7.50 to $7.80 in Chicago. 
After six months and a favor¬ 
able performance review, Chi¬ 
cago baristas will now make 
$8.58 per hour, and their 
New York counterparts will 
make $9.63. Though company 
higher-ups have instructed 
store-level management to tell 
workers the raises are not due 
to union activity, organizers 
count them as a triumph—and 
a sign that things are chang¬ 
ing. Joe Tessone, a lead SWU 
organizer in Chicago, says that 
after his first six months, he 
was “insulted with a 15-cent 
raise.” Now that kind of be- 
hind-closed-doors stinginess 
won’t fly. 

Yet it’s not all sunshine 
and victory for the union-pio¬ 
neering baristas. Workers have 


been fired, bribed, coerced, 
and spied on because of their 
union involvement, Gross 
says. And as of yet, the Star- 
bucks corporation hasn’t of¬ 
ficially acknowledged the IWW 
union. The company may 
come around soon though, 
says Tessone. 

“If Starbucks is smart, 
it will recognize the union,” 
he says. “They are making a 
big mistake by attempting to 
fool the public and deny our 
existence while at the same 
time maintaining a fierce 
anti-union campaign on the 
inside. The world is watching 
this unfold and the company 
is finding it more difficult to 
uphold its artificial ‘worker 
friendly’ image.” 

In addition to engaging 
in direct action on their home 
turf, members of the IWW 
Starbucks Workers Union 
are kicking off the Justice 


from Bean to Cup campaign, 
which seeks to unite baris¬ 
tas with another underpaid 
group: coffee bean farmers. 
College campuses make up 
a prime front of this cam¬ 
paign. Student activists across 
the country are demanding 
that their schools stop serv¬ 
ing Starbucks coffee until 
the company commits to use 
Fair Trade coffee beans and 
recognize the IWW Starbucks 
Worker Union. 

“Transnational capi¬ 
tal requires a transnational 
response from labor,” Gross 
says. “The IWW believes that 
workers need to organize 
across the Starbucks supply 
chain. We can let these com¬ 
panies rule our lives, or we 
can organize and fight back 
in a social movement. As a 
society, we have a choice.” 

—Maya Schenwar 

See videos and more at www.starbucksunion.org. 


PUNK PLANET 17 





PP77 static 


“The divestment movement 
is starting to scare the 
Sudanese government.” 

A NEW GENERATION OF STUDENT ACTIVISTS TAKES 
ON GENOCIDE IN THE SUDAN 


O n October 15, 2006, close 
to 200 activists gath¬ 
ered in downtown Chicago to 
take part in a “Human Chain 
for Darfur” demonstration 
on the city’s crowded Michi¬ 
gan Avenue. The demonstra¬ 
tion, organized by the Chicago 
Coalition to Save Darfur, was 
meant to show support for a 
United Nations-led military 
intervention in the Sudan. 
Participants wore blue United 
Nations T-shirts and carried 
signs calling for an end to the 
genocide that has killed over 
400,000 civilians since Feb¬ 
ruary 2003. 

Not surprisingly, this 
group of demonstrators in¬ 
cluded a wide variety of peace 
activists, religious leaders, and 
even Sudanese refugees. What 
was perhaps most refreshing 
about the make-up of these ac¬ 
tivists was the presence of many 
college students from such areas 
schools as the University of Chi¬ 
cago, the University of Illinois- 
Chicago, and DePaul Univer¬ 
sity. To many such students, this 
attention to the current situa¬ 
tion in Darfur—along with the 
belief that they can do some¬ 
thing about these atrocities—is a 
perfect example of the personal 
meeting the political. These 
young people are products of 


the I990s, an era defined not 
only by tremendous economic 
growth and optimism, but also 
a decade marked by policies 
of mass execution around the 
globe. Today’s college students 
came of age seeing images of 
death and destruction in Bos¬ 
nia, Rwanda, and Kosovo, and 
these images clearly stuck with 
them, as did the United States’ 
inability to adequately address 
such tragedies. 

“Our failure to inter¬ 
vene—or our belated interven¬ 
tion, as in the case of Bosnia 
and arguably Kosovo—really 
left a mark on our generation,” 
notes Dan Millenson, a sopho¬ 
more at Brandeis University 
and President of the Sudan 
Divestment Task Force. It is 
this heightened awareness of 
history of contemporary geno- 
cidal moments that may help 
explain why today’s generation 
of college students is particu¬ 
larly attuned to the suffering 
in the Sudan. 

Students like Millenson 
have begun to make a tremen¬ 
dous impact in the struggle 
against genocide in the Sudan 
by calling upon their home 
institutions to divest all in¬ 
vestments in any companies 
with either direct or indirect 
ties to the Sudanese govern¬ 


ment. Across the country, 
schools including Dartmouth, 
Stanford, Harvard, and 
the University of Maryland 
(among others) have, under 
pressure from student activ¬ 
ists, signed on to the divest¬ 
ment campaign. At the same 
time, groups like Students 
Taking Action Now in Darfur 
(STAND) and the above -men¬ 
tioned Sudan Divestment Task 
Force have brought a level of 
organizational sophistication 
to the issue, pushing their in¬ 
fluence beyond the confines 
of the ivory tower. After all, 
it was only after the Univer¬ 
sity of California system made 
the decision to divest that the 
entire state of California fol¬ 
lowed suit. In another example 
of this phenomenon, Provi¬ 
dence, Rhode Island became 
the first city to join the divest¬ 
ment campaign in the wake 
of the example set by Brown 
University. 

In many ways, the cam¬ 
paign for divestment in the 
Sudan is reminiscent of the 
strategy that many young ac¬ 
tivists took during the 1980s 
to protest the apartheid re¬ 
gime in South Africa. Like the 
government of apartheid-era 
South Africa, the leaders of 
the Sudan rely heavily upon 
direct foreign investment to 
finance their repressive poli¬ 
cies. This earlier divestment 
campaign drew much pub¬ 
lic attention to the horrors 
of apartheid in South Africa, 
and today’s student leaders 
hope their push for divest¬ 


ment yields similar results. If 
nothing else, contemporary 
student activists have had an 
incredible amount of suc¬ 
cess in a short period of time. 
During the South Africa cam¬ 
paign, roughly 55 colleges and 
universities divested over the 
course of more than two de¬ 
cades. By contrast, more than 
30 colleges and universities 
have divested from Sudan or 
adopted restrictions on Su¬ 
dan-linked investments in less 
than 18 months. 

Despite encouraging 
trends, the relevance of stu¬ 
dent-led divestment cam¬ 
paigns is questionable if the 
genocide campaign continues. 
But there is evidence that the 
Sudanese government is be¬ 
ginning to feel the heat. 

“The divestment move¬ 
ment is starting to scare the 
Sudanese government,” notes 
Millenson. “In response to 
the divestment campaign, the 
Sudanese government has is¬ 
sued press releases condemn¬ 
ing the divestment movement, 
has tried to convince activists 
to abandon the effort, and has 
taken out full-page ads in the 
New York Times. As the movement 
gains even more momentum 
over the coming months, we 
hope that this pressure will 
increase.” 

As heartbreaking im¬ 
ages and stories continue to 
emerge from Darfur, one 
hopes that Millenson is right. 

—Michael Carriere 
Visit STAND at www.standnow.org and get involved. 


18 PUNK PLANET 






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M e was born only a few miles from this 
very spot, but Joe Lally looks out of place 
in this Adams Morgan cafe in Washing¬ 
ton DC's first political ward. To describe how 
he got from There to Here, the name of his Dis- 
chord Records solo debut, would be to recount 
the entire history of American punk and an 
artistic odyssey that spans continents. Now a 
homeowner in Columbia Heights, the adjoining 
DC neighborhood, he’s arrived early; donning 
cut-off khakis, Birkenstocks, and a sun-hat, he 
sped here on his aqua-colored beachcruiser for 
a large coffee and heavily-iced tapwater. It’s a 
blissfully sunny and cloudless Tuesday morning, 
and he’s got a few hours to kill before retrieving 
his five-year-old daughter from school. 

Despite the mellow atmosphere, he appears 
poised but self-conscious. “It's a little quiet in 
here, isn’t it?” he whispers, suggesting that we 
head into a nearby alley to talk more freely. A 
founding member of Fugazi, Lally is best-known 
as the lanky and taciturn bassist who put early 
treasures like “Waiting Room” (“I didn’t even 
write that bassline”) on the cultural radar. 

One of four chief-architects of the “post-punk 
underground”—copious buzzwords notwith¬ 
standing, most Dischord material is virtually 
unclassifiable—it’s ironic to see him placidly 
stirring a decaf by a shaded curbside, his de¬ 
meanor more reminiscent of a young abbot fresh 
from morning prayer than that of an old-guard of 
American hardcore. Having recently completed 
projects with Jon Frusciante of the Red Hot 
Chili Peppers, Josh Klinghoffer, and ex-Frodus 
members Jason Hamacher and Shelby Cinca, 
Lally takes time out to discuss his solo work 
and upcoming tour with, among other musi¬ 
cians, the Melvins. 

Interview by Pete Cobus 

Fugazi has been on indefinite hiatus, and in 
the intervening years you’ve cut a number of 
side projects in Italy, LA, and DC. So, your 
new solo release, There to Here : why now? 

As soon as Fugazi stopped—as soon as we 
decided to stop playing live, to stop work¬ 
ing and allow our personal lives take over— 
as soon as that was announced and my 
future lay blank before me, words started 
to come. I started to visualize the music 
alone. For 15 or 16 years I’d understood 
only how to make music with three other 
people. Before that, I’d learned to write 
with a couple of others, or to play basslines 


someone had shown me. Fugazi got to the 
point where I wasn’t even sure what was go¬ 
ing on anymore; I wasn’t sure how to write 
the way the four of us had written together. 
I had been able to write on all of the re¬ 
cords, and I even started to sing on the last 
couple of albums, so I knew I had it in me 
to sing and play songs. But when Fugazi’s 
momentum stopped, it was like I contin¬ 
ued moving, but I had no outlet. I won¬ 
dered, “How is this going to work?” I re¬ 
ally didn’t know how to finish songs on my 
own. I really didn’t have a deep technical 
understanding of music. 

So, it wasn’t a lack of personal discipline that 
kept you from writing, but that you just weren’t 
sure how to proceed. 

Exactly. Sometimes in my head, vocally, I 
could hear what sounded like full songs, 
but I didn’t know how to write basslines for 
them. Sometimes the vocals would match a 
bassline I had already written, so I started 
to put them down even if I liked only a part 
or two, and it was like, “OK, each bassline 
is a song.” That was my starting point. 
Then I took the lyrics and basslines and 
tried to fit them together. I tried to learn 
technically. I took piano lessons in LA, 
and to this day I can’t tell you much about 
it. They showed me how to play a couple 
of songs, and how to associate the sounds: 
the minor sound, the major sound, etc 
... It wasn’t like I learned to play piano, I 
still don’t know. But it helped just talking 
to someone. The teacher wasn’t able to an¬ 
swer all of my questions, but he conveyed 
what needed to; he understood that I’d 
been playing for a long time, and he knew 
about Fugazi and my situation, my dilem¬ 
ma. We didn’t get very far because I moved 
again. I lived in Portland for a while after 
that, and, both in LA and Portland, I’d 
played with different people. Inevitably I 
played my own music with them, and then 
I’d just leave it and go “this is just some¬ 
thing that I have to figure out on my own.” 
It bothered me that it kept being there, 
that it kept nagging at me. When I moved 
back to DC, it became clear. It was like, 
“I’m going to find out what this is.” 

The process of growth you’ve justdescribed, does 
it speak to the title of the album, There to Here ? 

You could say it has a lot to do with it. Like, 


Fugazi could represent “There” and my 
solo stuff could be “Here.” There’s a lot of 
that going on, and it’s in the artwork. It’s 
throughout the record. 

You’ve said in previous interviews that you 
prefer your basslines to be “totally crucial, but 
totally simple.” Though you performed alone 
last night at the Black Cat, you’ll have musi¬ 
cians as diverse as the Melvins, Justin Moyer, 
Mauricio Takara, and Fernando Cappi joining 
you on stage throughout the fall and winter 
tour. Have you intentionally left these tracks 
structurally basic so that other performer can 
build around them onstage? 

They were consciously written that way. 
The idea was to write the core. It had to 
stand on its own. But also I knew that I 
would need to be able to stand there and 
play them by myself. 

So now that you’re writing and playing on your 
own, what’s next for you? 

I’m still working it out, and I may be pretty 
happy working it out for some time. The 
concept was to write music that people 
could add to, and from there it would 
evolve. I don’t know if it needs to go be¬ 
yond that. For example, when I realized 
that I needed a percussionist, it was be¬ 
cause I knew that if there was just the 
slightest amount of percussion, just a beat, 
the groove would be conveyed better— 
the groove would translate and the songs 
would come across better. And that’s where 
I got it to, and now I want other people to 
come in and be themselves and react to it. 

Your lyrics: some of them are about war, and, 
presumably, Iraq and US foreign policy. Is 
that accurate? 

There’s always some kind of war going on, 
and, really, I am not writing about the spe¬ 
cifics of a particular war. When I reference 
war, I’m generally talking about war as a 
concept—the idea that war is supposed to 
be an answer to something. War is a primi¬ 
tive answer to problems between nations 
that only reinforces the concept of nation, 
and reinforces these invisible lines on 
the earth, which has no natural lines, no 
borders, Our country spends enormous 
amounts of money on defense, while, in 
my opinion, there are things being over¬ 
looked. Things that are human, or, what 
is it? Humanist? Education, health care, 


24 PUNK PLANET 





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that 


why 


the 


have 


be 


to 


songs 


about the human experience 


‘ When I play, 

it’s not about me. IPs about 
everyone in the room sharing 
the human experience , and 


retirement . . . People plead their “ists” 
and “isms,” and they follow their politi¬ 
cal parties, but those are very, very nar¬ 
row ideas by which to define people. Re¬ 
publican or Democrat, conservative or 
liberal—those words don’t come close to 
defining anyone. Those definitions just 
limit the conversation. When one person 
speaks as a Democrat and one speaks as a 
Republican, and they debate something, 
nothing of value gets said about the most 
basic of human needs. And it’s the same 
everywhere: a few people in power decide 
that there needs to be a war, and that there 
is no way around the problem without their 
own people killing other people. There is 
this invisible national border, and that in¬ 
visible national border; your people em¬ 
body one definition of it, those people de¬ 
fine another. }[ To me, it will never mean 
anything more than that. It all depends 
on how you can convince people—use the 
word “brainwash,” even—that they need to 
kill each other. And coming back to Wash¬ 
ington DC, after having been abroad for 
a while, it just makes it clearer: the ne¬ 


glect of people’s needs, the country going 
deeper into debt with no plan for any kind 
of future. I could just go on and on. Hit’s 
tough to talk about, but you could say that I 
write nothing but love songs. I believe that 
people who want to destroy other people, 
deep down, are in pain and they hurt, so 
they lash out. Really, they want to be with 
other people but they can’t figure out how, 
so perhaps they want to massacre everyone 
or whatever. And part of writing songs is 
to point things out to people because you 
want to help them; arguably, in that sense, 
you could say they’re all love songs, or say 
that they’re all political songs. It depends 
on how you look at it. I feel that all you can 
do is relate the human experience, and I 
don’t know why that is important. Maybe 
because those are the songs that move me. 

It sounds like you a perceive a deep failure of 
communication in the world, and, like other art¬ 
ists, the painter Chuck Close, say, you want to 
produce work that defies vocabulary and reso¬ 
nates with people who appreciate a certain kind 
of shared intimacy with one another. 

I agree totally. I just feel that it is so im¬ 


portant to go see live music in a room 
with people. It doesn’t matter how small 
or large. When I play, it’s not about me. 
It’s about everyone in the room sharing 
the human experience, and that’s why the 
songs have to be about the human experi¬ 
ence. They have to be about the struggle 
to be at peace, and to be at peace with 
other humans. At the time of the song, 
during the performance, you transcend 
the problem of being the misunder¬ 
stood, lone person. You aren’t. For that 
song, you’re in tune with the others. It 
cannot be explained or defined, and 
to apply words might even demean [the 
phenomenon]. It is the thing that, if 
you’re open to it, carries into other parts 
of your life. 

You mentioned Bob Dylan on stage the other 
night. Has he influenced to your solo work? 

How could he not? I walked away from 
Fugazi with only my bass and my voice, 
and the question hit me, “How can keep 
playing on my own?” How can I not see 
Dylan, and Neil Young and others like 
them? They stood all by themselves and, of 


26 PUNK PLANET 





















course, that’s what I wanted to do. Except 
that I wanted to it with a bass. 

Coming from the Dischord scene, a thing so 
distinctly grassroots, what’s your perception 
of the word “sellout”? What do you make of 
Dylan playing stadiums, and making tons of 
money? What about Neil Young performing on 
MTV? How do you see this in relation to your 
own music or your own experience? 

It doesn’t relate to my experience. Fugazi 
played to as many people as we could. We 
never said, “No, we won’t play a place that’s 
that big.” We always tried to line up a venue 
that would accommodate the amount of 
people that might come out to see us. We 
did with the record label what was right 
for us, and that doesn’t mean that it can 
work for other bands. But, what? should 
I not like Otis Redding because he was 
signed to a major label? That has nothing 
to do with what he was doing. If anything, 
I’ve locked myself into something very 
unique in this day and age. What Fugazi 
did was an enormous statement. For me, 
to sign with Sony would be to retract that 
statement, and would be a sort of gro¬ 
tesque thing to do. I mean, I don’t want 
my family to starve, but I also don’t think 
that I have that vast an audience. The sit¬ 


uation isn’t that different from Fugazi’s. 
I don’t really have the interest in writing 
hit songs for people. Dylan started out as 
a songwriter, and I think he was making 
more dough off of publishing songs he 
wrote for other people to sing. Then he 
was encouraged to do it himself, and he 
eventually found himself in the position 
that he was in, which, apparently, if you’ve 
read Chronicles, wasn’t such a great position 
to be in. He wasn’t particularly thrilled 
with the situation he was thrust into. 
Frankly, it’s more than I could deal with. 
I like being able to walk down the street 
without having people think that they 
know who I am. Because, people don’t 
know who Bob Dylan is. They don’t know 
him, and even I might speculate that I 
know him because of the time I’ve spent 
listening to his music. But I just do not 
know that who that guy is, and I’m sure he 
could care less to know me. 

You and Don Zientara spent the spring tour¬ 
ing some smaller venues, and you had a de¬ 
cent turnout. You recently shared the stage at 
The Black Cat with Justin Moyer of Supersys¬ 
tem—AKA, El Guapo. What’s on tap for the 
future tour? 

I’ll be touring with the Melvins, and 


it’ll depend on what kind of venues they 
book. It’ll depend on the city, but they’re 
awesome people, and they are a great live 
band, so there should be quite a draw. 
I’ll be in an opening slot, but hopeful¬ 
ly Dale and Buzz will play behind me. 
The three of us won’t have any chance to 
practice, so they will really need to learn 
the record. Unless they come up with 
their own version of the material right 
off the bat, which is fine with me. So 
long as I can do what I’m doing without 
being distracted. I mean, they’re just so 
good at this kind of thing . . . 

Over the course of the upcoming tour, you’ll 
have numerous elite musicians alongside you, 
and all of them will need to learn your ma¬ 
terial. That said, any chance for a post-tour 
studio collaboration? 

The thing I’m doing right now is so simple 
that I’m not interested in cluttering it up 
with a lot of people. I just don’t hear it yet. 
I’m still working on presenting the most 
boiled-down extractions. I mean, in the¬ 
ory, and this is just speculation, I’d first 
love to work on music I make with the Mel¬ 
vins, maybe a Joe Lally/Melvins record. 
But I really don’t know. We’ll have to play 
and see what we write together. ® 


P U N K P L A N E T 27 










I first got to know Frida Berrigan in jail. We 
were in Manhattan's Tombs during the 2005 
Republican National Convention as part 
of the NYPD's 1800+ protest-related arrests 
(most later found to be illegal). I had been ar¬ 
rested by surprise when the NYPD diverted a 
Union Square protest onto 16th Street, penned 
off both ends of the block and arrested every¬ 
one inside, offering no chance to disperse. By 
the time I met Frida, I had spent 14 hours at the 
makeshift jail of Pier 57, an overcrowded, filthy 
bus garage with walls and floor spread thickly 
with oil and tar, like a mechanics shop; I subse¬ 
quently spent about three hours in the Tombs, 
all without charge or explanation. 

Needless to say, by the time a stern police¬ 
woman put Frida in my cell, I was miserable, 
grimy and exhausted. So I marveled to watch 
her work the crowd, her white clothes spotless, 
holding aloft her city-issued styrofoam cup of 
water as if it were a glass of red wine at a cock¬ 
tail party. Her smile was both mischievous and 
reassuring as she aimed it my way, came over 
to me and sat down. 

I soon learned that Frida had been arrest¬ 
ed as part of a protest with the War Resisters 
League—a longtime nonviolent antiwar group— 
as had the other women all in white, few still as 
spotless as she. (Frida was later released after 
about 24 hours in the system, I after 32.) 

I also learned that Frida was well acquaint¬ 
ed with the tactic of arrest as political protest. 
She grew up at Jonah House, a community of 
nonviolent antiwar activists in Baltimore, MD. 
Her father and uncle, Phillip and Daniel Berri¬ 
gan, were veritable celebrities of civil disobedi¬ 
ence, famous for pouring blood on draft files to 
remind us that “war is an outright bloody busi¬ 
ness,” as Phillip told the Sun magazine shortly 
before his death in 2002. Her mother, former 
nun Elizabeth McAllister, has also long shaped 
and impacted America’s peace movement. 

Frida continues this tradition today as a 
founding member of Witness Against Torture: A 
Campaign to Shut Down Guantanamo. The group 
began in December 2005 when Frida and 23 
other US Catholics walked 60-plus miles in an at¬ 
tempt to visit the inmates of Guantanamo prison, 
praying and fasting along their journey. She is also 
a senior research associate at the World Policy In¬ 
stitute’s Arms Trade Resource Center and a board 
member of the War Resisters League. 

Interview by Jessica Stein 


Tell us the story of your walk to Guantanamo. 
What was that like? 

Let’s see . . . It’s interesting, right now, to 
think about how much we know about Guan¬ 
tanamo, because even a year ago, a year and 
a half ago, we didn’t know very much. First 
it was like, “Oh my god, there’s this prison,” 
and then, “Wow, they’re torturing people 
there.” Just these little bits and pieces of in¬ 
formation came out. And some of us had 
been paying attention to it. And then, in 
one of those really idle, casual conversations, 
someone said, ‘You know, we should do a 
protest there.” Then in July of last year, we 
got word that a lot of the prisoners had begun 
a hunger strike. And this hit home in a dif¬ 
ferent way. These guys have nothing. Some of 
them probably don’t even know what country 
they’re in; they’re just in custody, with the 
sense that they could be there forever, So 
a bunch of us started paying much closer at¬ 
tention, and taking seriously this demand, 
this call, from these men there. In a state¬ 
ment that got out through a prisoner’s lawyer, 
they said, “We’re going to fast until we die or 
we’re let out of here, and the American peo¬ 
ple have to do something.” And we thought, 
“Well, OK.” A group of us had already been 
meeting, and this idea was sort of abstractly 
blowing around, but the hunger strike really 
added this gravity and urgency to the whole 
thing, We had a friend who happened to be 
going to Cuba, and we asked him to check it 
out for us, see how close we could get [to the 
prison]. Through him, we got a better sense 
of the geography of occupation, and the ge¬ 
ography of this legacy of the US imperial 
project. The base of Guantanamo is huge; 
it straddles the bay of Guantanamo, on the 
eastern end of the country; it’s surrounded 
by multiple fences; and the outside border 
is guarded by the Cuban military. Basically 
he said there’s no way to get anywhere near 
anything that would even look like a military 
base, much less a prison camp where people 
are being tortured and abused. The closest 
thing was this lookout that the Cuban tourist 
bureau manages, where you can see the base 
down in the distance. We were really disap¬ 
pointed. By then it was the end of the sum¬ 
mer, we’d been meeting two-three months, 
doing all this studying, doing all this re¬ 
search. And we had this all-day meeting to 
figure out what we wanted to do. It was re- 


28 PUNK PLANET 





PUNK PLANET 29 

































































+ 4 - 4 - 

h ^^+ + + + 

' r * 4- 





4 

+ ++ 

+ * 


never had an 
like this 
before, with a group 
of people I totally 
trust, where the 
craziest ideas, you 
know, can sound 
crazy, but people 
absorb them and let 
them sink in, and 
there’s this collective 
risk-taking that can 
happen. So in this 
meeting, we came 
up with this idea 
of walking to 
Guantanamo. 




ally—neat. I’ve never had an experience like 
this before, with a group of people I totally 
trust, where the craziest ideas, you know, can 
sound crazy, but people absorb them and let 
them sink in, and there’s this collective risk¬ 
taking that can happen. So in this meet¬ 
ing, we came up with this idea of walking [to 
Guantanamo]. Through walking we could 
push the boundaries. Our friend had gotten 
on a bus, followed all the rules, gotten to the 
end of the road and then stopped. And we 
thought, “Well, what if we walked, and told 
the story of the effort it takes to get there, and 
how hard we were trying by walking? ” 

Can you say a little more about Guantanamo 
itself? Why does the US have a prison in a 
country that we don’t even have . . . 

Formal relationships with? Yeah. During 
the Spanish-American war, which the Cu¬ 
bans called the War of US Aggression, the 
invasion of Cuba, 1904-5, when we took 
Cuba from the Spanish, that was the piece 
that we held on to when we turned the rest 
of the country over to the Batista regime. It 
was useful for us as we extracted resources 
from Latin America, as sort of a way station. 
We have a treaty with Cuba; I saw a copy of 
it. It’s from 1903, I 9 ° 4 - It says the US base 
there will be used only to transport iron and 
coal, something like that, and we pay the 
Cuban government every year. The Castro 
regime has never cashed the check; it’s this 
little act of resistance that delegitimizes our 
hold on this piece of land. So we’ve held it 
for more than IOO years. We’ve had US sol¬ 
diers there all that time, and then in 1993, 
when Hatian refugees were trying to come 
to the US, we ended up holding them there. 
That was the precedent, and what members 
of the administration were thinking about 
when they explicitly went looking for a place 
where they could have this prison that would 
be unreachable by US law. 51 So, we wanted 
to go there. We learned that from Santiago, 
the second largest city in Cuba, it’s about 120 
kilometers [about 75 miles] to somewhere 
near the base at Guantanamo. 5 [ From there 
things unfolded. We kept meeting and pre¬ 
senting this idea to other people; we started 
raising money; and we thought about the 
mandate in the Gospels to visit the prison¬ 
ers, to perform the works of mercy, clothe 
the naked, feed the hungry. Many of the 
people in the group were out of the Catholic 










Worker movement; I was one of three not liv¬ 
ing in a Catholic Worker community, I was 
totally committed to this idea. This walk¬ 
ing just felt so right. The logistics of walking 
made a lot of sense, and the political project 
of walking [made sense] in the sense of tell¬ 
ing the story to the American people of how 
far away Guantanamo is, and why the admin¬ 
istration went to such great lengths to put it 
there; and when those two things fused with 
this Biblical mandate, this thing that Jesus 
said, “What we do to the least of these, we do 
to Christ himself,” or god himself, or her¬ 
self—when those things came together, I was 
so committed to it. U So I had this big battle 
in myself between hearing all these people I 
respected say, “If the Cuban government says 
no, you just have to appreciate that.” This 
professor who I respect a lot, who’s worked 
on Cuba for decades, she told me, “You’re 
not going to be able to do it. You’re going to 
waste your money, you’re going to get on a 
plane and fly to Cuba and they’re going to say 
you can’t come in.” So we got on a plane and 
flew to Cuba on December 5, 2005 - 

In spite of all the no’s. 

In spite of all the no’s. Some directly to our 
face. We flew to Cuba on this rickety little 
plane, with duct tape across the door, and 
rum out of a big bottle. It was something like 
3 in the afternoon. I thought, “I want to keep 
my head about me, but I really want some 
rum!”j| There were 23 of us—two people 
had gone early to set up things—and there 
we were. We got into Cuba on Monday night, 
December 6th. Our plan had been to start 
walking the next morning. That didn’t quite 
happen. 

What did? 

As I said, we’d been meeting, we all knew 
each other really well, there were some peo¬ 
ple I’d known my entire life. There were 
three couples and a bunch of other people. 
We were about equal numbers of men and 
women. The youngest was 24 and the old¬ 
est was 79- We had a nun and a priest, and a 
lot of trust amongst us. When we got there, 
immigration showed up. Very scary men, in 
very proper uniforms. “Hey, you guys aren’t 
tourists.” We said, “You’re right, we’re not 
tourists, this is what we re going to do, we’re 
going to start walking tomorrow.” The guy 
takes one of our visas, turns it over and reads 


in English. You know what’s written on the 
back of a tourist visa: you can go to the beach, 
pump money into the Cuban economy, that’s 
about it. He said, “You guys are talking about 
walking, camping, this political project, and 
you don’t have the right visa for it.” He basi¬ 
cally threatened to deport us. So we had 
a long meeting with these guys. Finally one 
of them says, “We really like this thing that 
you’re doing, but you just can’t come here 
and do it.” There’s this solidarity organi¬ 
zation, Amistad, the Cuban Institute for 
Friendship between the People, and the im¬ 
migration people said, “If you can get them 
to support what you’re doing, you can do it. 
But you can’t just walk out of here tomor¬ 
row morning.” }[ And then we had this huge 
split in the group between those who were 
like, “No, we came here to walk and we’ve got 
to start walking,” and those who wanted to 
at least go through the motions, and really 
didn’t want to get deported. I thought about 
trying to be an activist in New York City, and 
being the activist that got deported by the 
Cuban government, and that would just not 
add to my cred at all. [Laughs.] If it were go¬ 
ing to happen as we got to the gates of Guan¬ 
tanamo, and we had walked all this way, that 
would have been one thing. But to get off the 
plane one day, and get thrown on a plane the 
next day, it wasn’t what I wanted. Not for my¬ 
self, or the group, or all the people who had 
supported us. 

So you fought it. 

We really fought it out. I’d never fought any¬ 
thing out like this. And the first full day that 
we were there was the third anniversary of my 
dad dying. My whole family was together in 
Salisbury, Maryland, and here I was. It was 
going to be emotional no matter what, and it 
was extra emotional to have this throwdown 
inside the group. The people who were ready 
to walk were the older people in the group 
who were friends of my dad’s, who were like, 
“We walk across military bases in the States, 
we don’t obey any laws, we don’t listen to any 
authority, let’s go.” I heard that, and that was 
like my dad talking to me. Yet it would have 
jeopardized everything, So cool heads pre¬ 
vailed. We met with Amistad. I think they 
had had time to check up on us, our prepa¬ 
ration, our background, because by the end 
of that day, Tuesday, they were ready to roll 
with us. H So we started walking on Wednes¬ 


day. But we started walking having had this 
big fight within the group. It sorted itself out 
as we walked, but it took a little while. And 
then we were just walking, in this rhythm 
of silent walking and reflective walking, and 
chatty, gossipy, two-by-two walking. Each of 
us adopted a prisoner, and would read the 
account of that particular prisoner over and 
over again. We got into this rhythm. And 
meanwhile, there’s this beautiful country¬ 
side. And every once in a while I’d be like, 
“Shit, I’m in Cuba. And it is beautiful.” And 
the people were—it’s almost a cliche, but they 
were so welcoming. 

People came along while you were on the 
walk? 

People were walking along the road. It’s the 
one road between these two big cities, essen¬ 
tially. Everybody knew we were this group of 
Americans, where we were going, where we 
had come from. People walked with us and 
chatted. All the cars going by, trucks filled 
with people, all manner of vehicle honk¬ 
ing, “Yay, yay, yay.” We would send someone 
ahead to see about a piece of land where we 
could camp for the night and people were 
like, “Oh yeah, sure.” Which was stagger¬ 
ing. Families were really poor, but not abject 
at all. The people we stayed with were really 
healthy, and there was electricity and run¬ 
ning water, and land that they owned and 
farmed and gardened on. People were proud 
of what they had. We walked for six days, 
Wednesday to Monday. Around 4 > 5 o’clock 
on Monday we arrived at the end of the line. 
The end of the line was a cow fence, a couple 
of strands of barbed wire, about five miles 
away from the prison. We walked out of the 
city of Guantanamo and it was just flat. Hot 
and still and flat, just this straight road. 

Where did you stay once you were there? 

We camped out. We arrived late on Monday, 
and we just stayed. It was surprisingly emo¬ 
tional, given that there’s no visible emblem 
of this American military base, or the prison 
or anything like that. You can’t see anything, 
but it felt like we had gotten where we were 
going. We were told by the soldiers guard¬ 
ing the checkpoint that the base was there, 
turn that way; and for the rest of our time, 
that’s where we were turned. We set up our 
little camp, a little altar/vigil area. We had a 
Mass that evening, then a final dinner be- 


PUNK PLANET 31 



fore starting our fast. }[ The next morning we 
each took responsibility for two-hour chunks 
of time, and we read accounts, or read from 
the Bible. We said the Rosary a lot. I’m a kind 
of weird Catholic. You know my parents— 
nun and priest—but we never went to church 
growing up. So I’ve never said the Rosary 
before in my life. But it’s a nice way to spend 
time. You’re thinking about the fact that the 
central figure of our faith was someone who 
was tortured by the state, by an empire. That 
resonated really deeply. So there was a lot to 
think about and reflect on, a lot of energy to 
send that last little bit [to the prison]. We all 
had this sense that we had come really far, 
and that we had overcome a lot—mostly over¬ 
come our own privilege and our need to be in 
control—to get here. We had to roll with a lot. 
}[ On Wednesday we had a press conference. 
That was fun. The AP and Reuters came all 
the way from Havana to meet us. Then the 
next day we continued the vigil, and the fol¬ 
lowing day we got on our rented little busses 
and went back to Santiago. And that was re¬ 
ally, really hard, The day before we left, af¬ 
ter the press conference, an AP article came 
out and it included a statement from the 
spokespeople at the base. Now we had been 
calling the Pentagon, and the Navy, and the 
Justice Department, calling everybody, call¬ 
ing, calling, “Let us in, here we are.” And we 
were told no over and over again. And in the 
AP article, the Guantanamo command is¬ 
sued a statement that said something to the 
effect of, “Yes, we know there are protesters 
here; no, we have not seen them. Have no 
fear; the base is functioning normally.” And 
that was very . . . 

Disheartening? 

It was really disheartening. “Functioning 
normally”? What is normal? Normal is wa¬ 
ter boarding, normal is sexual humiliation, 
normal is beating, and all of this. To say 
nothing of just the fact that they’re there. 
H One night we went up this little hill, and 
we could see down into the plain, and you 
could see the outlines of the base at night, 
because it was all lit up. It was amazing, be¬ 
cause you could see really far, in all direc¬ 
tions, and nothing, nothing was as bright as 
this thing. There was this searchlight going. 
It was straight out of Lord of the Rings, the ‘cease¬ 
lessly spinning eye’ of Mordor. It was such an 
evil, evil thing, and you could just feel it. 


So we were sitting there, praying and fasting. 
We did our final liturgy, and then broke our 
fast, and everyone was just sobbing. All the 
Bible readings were about prisoners being 
freed, and walking, and working for justice; 
all this stuff resonated really deeply, and that 
day was no different. And then the busses 
were there, and it was time to go. 

How was your return home? 

We kind of eased back in. You go from this 
place where there’s no advertising, no extra 
noise, no extra bullshit. Slowly you go from 
that place back to a big city, in Cuba; and 
from that big city in Cuba—where there’s still 
not a lot of extraneous stuff—to Santo Do¬ 
mingo, where there’s cripples in the middle 
of the street, people begging, all this adver¬ 
tising, all this gross sex flesh stuff, this real 
consumption of people; and then you come 
back to Newark, We got back to Newark, 
and I was totally terrified. I don’t know what I 
thought was going to happen. We go through 
Customs, we’re all split up. We filled out our 
customs forms honestly, because we had gone 
really publicly. I think most people wrote 
“US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.” 
The woman didn’t even look at my little blue 
customs form; she ran my passport and was 
like, “Huh. You have to go through extra 
stuff.” So they go through all our stuff. 
Well, they try. The first woman’s backpack 
that they opened is disgusting. All of us had 
tried to bring as little as possible. So it’s all 
really dirty, filthy clothes that she’s been 
wearing for two weeks. The customs people 
were traumatized. As more and more of us 
show up—all sunburned and scrawny—she’s 
like, “I’m not looking through everybody’s 
bags. I just can’t do it.” And then we’re out. 
And then there’s [the question of] what do we 
do with this experience. How do we do what 
is actually a lot harder than going on this 
trip and doing this exciting, bold thing—the 
work here, to shut down Guantanamo and 
address this culture of impunity and lawless¬ 
ness. That’s what I’ve been trying to do, and 
that seems a lot harder. But the work is re¬ 
ally here. 

Say more about Witnesses Against Torture, 
because it sounds like you are doing some of 
that work here. 


Yeah. We are. We’re trying to do a couple of 
things. One is to manifest Guantanamo as 
much as possible, so we have these orange 
T-shirts, and we have this cage [like the 
prisoners are often put in], and jumpsuits 
[like the prisoners wear], and now 3 or 4 
actions at the US mission to the UN. 

Twenty five people were arrested at the one 
on June 26. 

Yeah. Three didn’t bring ID with them and 
took the names of prisoners at Guantanamo 
who had reportedly killed themselves. And 
on May I we had a big action—no arrests— 
with about JO people, mostly religious lead¬ 
ers and lay people of different traditions. 
That was pretty exciting, So we’re trying to 
have these actions, doing as much speaking 
as we can, and asking people to do whatever 
they can. Trying not just to do the kind of 
radical witness piece of it, but also the step- 
by-step organizing work, the bringing-peo- 
ple-along work, that isn’t so much a part of 
the culture of the radical Catholic left. I’m 
enjoying that, And we’re thinking about 
what we do next. One idea came on the heels 
of the action on the 26th, where three people 
took the names of the prisoners. When they 
were processed out, they went before a judge 
and were able to explain why they had been 
through the system as John Does, because the 
system wouldn’t accept these names that they 
had taken. Their lawyer got the names of the 
three men in the court record. They had the 
sense that this is the prisoners’ only chance— 
I mean, they’re dead now—to be spoken for 
in the US criminal justice system, And we 
started thinking, What would it look like if 
on the anniversary of Guantanamo being 
opened to these enemy combatants, these 
prisoners from all over the world—January 
II, 2002 is the date we’ve ascertained that 
prisoners were first brought to Guantana¬ 
mo—what if we did an action where we had 
as many people as are in Guantanamo still? 
Right now there are 420, but they’re trying 
to move people out. What would it look like 
for us to have that many people all go into the 
system with these names? We’re committed 
to doing it, and we’ve gotten a lot of people 
like, “Wow, OK, I’ll do that.” We think it 
would be a couple of days in the DC system, 
which is slower moving than the NY system. 

So we’re planning for that, thinking about 
what that would look like, and how to prepare 


32 PUNK PLANET 






harder than going 
on this trip and do¬ 
ing this exciting, bold 
thing—the work 
here, to shut down 
Guantanamo and 
address this culture 
of impunity and 
lawlessness. That’s 
what I’ve been 
trying to do, and 
that seems a lot 
harder. But the 
work is really here. 


§ 

§ 


people. There are some people who are like, 
“Oh yeah, piece of cake.” And some people 
for whom that’s a really huge step. Myself 
included; the longest I’ve ever been was that 
24 hours [during the RNC]. So that’s what 
we’re doing right now. We’re also continu¬ 
ing to think about what it means to be part 
of a campaign to shut down Guantanamo, 
when President Bush is saying, “Oh, I’d like 
to see Guantanamo shut down.” How to not 
be coopted, when what he means when he 
says shut down Guantanamo is to shut these 
people further into this legal black hole; 
and what we mean is a reckoning with how 
unjust this whole system is. They’re two dif¬ 
ferent things, except they’re the same words. 
This administration is a real mastermind of 
cooption and obfuscation and lying. They’re 
real good at it. It’s like the understatement of 
the year! But they really are. 


Let me play devil’s advocate about the action 
in January. Some people would say, “What’s 
that going to do?” How do you quantify, or just 
explain, this kind of tactic? 


Well, the first answer is that there is a hope 
that things will change as a result of this. 
The American system will be staggered by 
this collective act, see the error of its ways, 
and repent. But there also is this other thing. 
The easiest way to explain that is to talk about 
AJ Muste. There’s this great story; I think 
about it all the time. AJ Muste was an older 
activist during the Vietnam War—he had al¬ 
ready done all this stuff—and he’s out in front 
of the White House during the early days of 
the war. He’s got this little sign; it’s pour¬ 
ing rain, it’s freezing cold, he’s all by him¬ 
self. Some reporter recognizes him and says, 
“Mr Muste, here you are out in the rain, all 
alone, with your little soggy ‘Stop the War in 
Vietnam’ sign. Is anything going to change 
because of what you’re doing?” He says, “I 
hope things will change because of this, but 
I’m doing this so that I don’t change. I’m do¬ 
ing this so that I’m not changed by America.” 

It’s clever and cute but it’s also really true. 
This is such a cooptive culture. It’s so seduc¬ 
tive, and so placating. The default is to be 
comfortable all the. time, or to remove your¬ 
self. There are many walls up for most of us. 
Those of us who are white, well-educated and 
privileged, we don’t see barriers, we don’t see 
gates; yet we don’t step outside all that much. 
There’s an extraordinary amount of self- 


P U N K P L A N E T 33 







censorship that’s unconscious, that’s just a 
part of us. This is about doing something 
that allows us to break out of that for a short 
period of time. 

So you’ve grown up with this, as a tactic, as 
an idea. What was that like, growing up in this 
movement, growing up at Jonah House? Did 
you ever want to just go play Barbies? 

Jonah House was founded in 1973» in the 
twilight days of the Vietnam War, by my mom 
and my dad and a number of other people. 
They had been activists, all of them, in the 
Vietnam War movement. They had seen a 
lot of people become really, really active, and 
then flame out. So they thought about how to 
make this sustainable. They thought, “What 
if this was our whole lives, and there were 
enough of us that we could take care of each 
other, trade off on being the caretakers and 
the activists.” They also wanted to challenge 
the idea of the women keeping the home fires 
burning while the men went out to the bar¬ 
ricades. So they moved into a poor neigh¬ 
borhood in Baltimore, a community where 
my dad had been a priest. There were IO of 
them, at times, in this house. They didn’t 
want to live on donations or be dependent 
on anybody, so they painted houses. They 
dumpster dived for food, and shared a lot of 
that with the people in the neighborhood. 
If Then kids came. They were Catholic, to¬ 
tally ignorant of how this works, I guess. 
They were trying not to have kids, and then 
had two over the course of a year and a half. 
Me and my brother Jerry, Irish twins, We 
grew up in this tall, skinny rowhouse. We 
were hand-to-mouth. We went to the school 
down the block, this really poor school. We 
were the only white kids in our class. We were 
homeschooled until we were five, so we went 
to school knowing how to read and do math 
and all that, and were put in the same grade. 
We were essentially treated like twins for a 
long time. My mom is a twin, so that may 
have had something to do with it. 

Did you enjoy it? 

It was a weird place to grow up. We didn’t 
know it for a while, just like we didn’t know 
we were different, in a lot of ways. We 
didn’t know we were white until a certain 
point, or that that meant something. We 
didn’t know that not everybody lived with a 
lot of other people. Most of our classmates 


lived with one adult or a couple generations 
of women. People were really poor. And 
we were too. We got all of our food from 
the dumpsters, and our clothes from the 
secondhand store, our no-name sneakers. 
But we were a lot shabbier than the kids we 
went to school with. There was no back- 
to-school outfit, all that flash or the ex¬ 
tra effort that a lot of people put into how 
they look, because it’s important. We were 
definitely the weird kids, It was hard. I 
wanted a lot to be different. But where do 
you start? “I want a bologna sandwich for 
lunch, I want a juice box, I want a brand- 
new lunchbox every year. I don’t want to 
use this brown paper bag until it falls 
apart.” There was this enforced simplic¬ 
ity that was intense, and really counter- 
cultural. Way before I knew what that word 
meant, I had this sense that everything 
about the way I was being brought up was at 
odds with the culture. At a certain point I 
was like, I can’t fit in. I’m white, I got these 
weird clothes, I got these weird ideas, I got 
this weird lunch, I just gotta go with it, 
wear the three-corner hat—I had this little 
colonial hat that I just loved. I just decided 
at a certain point I was going to be strange. 
If I’ve thought a lot about rebellion, be¬ 
cause it’s the question that everybody asks 
us. I think that kids rebel against bullshit. 
Kids rebel against lies, and the fact that 
their parents lie to them and say it’s all 
going to be fine. They reach this point 
where they’re like, Wow, my parents aren’t 
happy, my parents aren’t doing what they 
believe in, my parents aren’t whole people. 
They’re pretending, and that sucks. How 
can they tell me what to do when they’re ly¬ 
ing to me? We never hit that point. There 
was a lot of hard stuff, but we were never 
lied to. K But there were things to be an¬ 
noyed about, things to be frustrated with, 
like a lot of people around, all the time. 
You were never alone, and that was an¬ 
noying. Probably IOO people lived in this 
house, over the course of the time that we 
were living there. Which is a huge number 
of people. 

Can you tell us more about your mom? She 
hasn’t gotten the spotlight your dad and uncle 
have, but it sounds like she’s been a longtime, 
committed activist all along as well. 

Oh, yeah. She’s phenomenal. She’s a 


w 


very affectionate mother. She’s been de¬ 
scribed to me by other people as this ar¬ 
chetypal mother figure. I think that’s 
true, but there are also these clear lines. 

She’s really tough. She’s an extraordi¬ 
nary facilitator, a phenomenal speak¬ 
er. And she taught me that you work at 
something like that; it’s not a gift, but 
a skill. And she never stops working. As ★ 

her daughter I worry about that, and the 
impact of that on me and the work ethic I ★ 

have. But as a person trying to be an ac-^, 
tivist, she’s a phenomenal role model, *^7 ^ 

It’s interesting. She smokes; she’s always.lfc 
smoked. You’re indoctrinated in school 
that you have to get your parents to stop 
smoking. My sister used to say [little kid 
voice], “All I want for my birthday is for 
you to stop smoking, Mommy, so you will 
be alive in the future.” But at a certain 
point I was like, “Look, she’s smoking 
and she’s not doing anything else. She’s^ 
got this five-minute little moment, may- ^ 
be ten times a day, where she’s not doing 
anything else. And I don’t care. I want 
her to have that five minutes.” If it’s not ^ 
a healthy thing to do, she makes up for 
it with all the other phenomenal things 
that she does, She’s the glue that held 
the community together. My dad was 
very, “This is the way I see it,” and peo¬ 
ple had a hard time with that. They kept 
struggling with that. Eventually she got 
through to my dad about how didactic he 
can be. He worked on a lot, because of my 
mom. He worked on sexuality, accepting 
my sister’s sexuality. He did that because 
my mom made him do it. And my sister 
made him do it, too. She just wasn’t go¬ 
ing to be closeted, Right after Septem¬ 
ber Ilth, my dad was in jail and he got put 
in the hole. He disappeared. He and my 
mom wrote every day, and all of a sudden 
there were no more letters. She called 
and called the prison, and it took her two 
weeks to find him. All these people in 
prison got disappeared, “for their own 
protection,” is what we eventually found 
out. Finally he gets out of the hole, he 
gets transferred to Ohio, and my sister, 
she’s at Oberlin, drives out by herself 
to go visit him. She’s decided she’s go¬ 
ing to tell him she’s a lesbian. I hear this 
later, and I’m like, “Kate, this is kind of 
a heavy thing to lay on him, right then.” 



34 PUNK PLANET 




She said, “Well, it was just time.” Even¬ 
tually he respected that, and grappled 
with it. That bothers me a lot, that this 
trope of the Berrigan brothers continues 
to dominate. I’m 32, and I speak all these 
places, and do all this work, and so often, 
just automatically, people put in my little 
bio, “Daughter of Phillip Berrigan.” It’s 
this awkward job. I recognize that who 
my parents are is a big part of who I am, 
but I don’t quite need it in my bio. But if 
you’re going to put it in there, I don’t just 
have one parent. You either have to take 
it out, or you have to put them both in. 
People are always so embarrassed, and so 
apologetic, but it’s this automatic thing. 
And it’s interesting, because it doesn’t 
happen to my brother. He’s not aware of 
it in the same way, and it doesn’t happen 
to him in the same way. 

It happens to women. 

It happens to women. Yeah. 

I feel like everyone has to navigate that heri¬ 
tage, particularly as we reach our early 30s 
and recognizably become adults. Especially 
because you’re in the same field—if you can 
call anti-war direct action a “field”—on the 
one hand you can draw this straight line from 
your parents to you, and the work that you’re 
doing, but there are also ways that it’s differ¬ 
ent. Everybody goes through that gift bag from 
the ancestors, you know; this is going on the 
altar, this is going to the Salvation Army, and I 
wonder what that’s been like for you. 

Someone once said to me, “Oh, Frida Ber¬ 
rigan, you’re part of the First Family of 
American activists.” I’ve been called “the 
princess of the peace movement.” Number 
one, would you ever say that to my brother? 
Would that ever be OK, or even purport¬ 
edly complimentary, like that’s something I 
want? But I do have this sense that I could 
be pretty entitled, that I could say things in 
a certain way to a certain group of people, 
and it would carry a whole lot of weight. I’m 
conscientiously wary of that. At the War Re¬ 
sisters League, last Friday, we had this pot- 
luck to begin the national committee meet¬ 
ing. I’m fasting on Fridays, as part of the 
“Troops Out Fast” thing in DC—there’s all 
these people fasting at the White House, it’s 
an open-ended fast—but this potluck dinner 
happened on Friday, so I made enchiladas, 


I’ve thought a lot 
about rebellion, be¬ 
cause it’s the ques¬ 
tion that everybody 
asks us. I think that 
kids rebel against 
bullshit. Kids rebel 
against lies, and the 
fact that their parents 
lie to them and say 
it’s all going to be 
fine. They reach this 
point where they’re 
like, Wow, my par¬ 
ents aren’t happy, my 
parents aren’t doing 
what they believe in, 
my parents aren’t 
whole people. They’re 
pretending, and that 
sucks. 


brought guacamole, but a bunch of people 
came really late, left early, didn’t help clean 
up. }[ Sometimes Ian, my partner, will get on 
my back. “You don’t have to stay late and help 
clean up. You don’t have to be the person 
making the copies.” He’s right, in a sense— 
there’s ways of sharing the work, and delegat¬ 
ing, and bringing other people in—there’s 
definitely this “I can do everything” thing I 
struggle against. But there is also this desire 
to check that kind of space that people would 
give me a little too freely, a little bit too much 
because they are looking directly at me. 

You talk about your mom’s little smoke breaks, 
and learning from that how to take care of 
yourself. What else do you do to make this ac¬ 
tivism, this life, sustainable? 

Well, I work really hard to find things fun¬ 
ny. I connect to my family and friends with 
a lot of humor, and hold that out. That’s 
one thing. I also try and keep things in 
perspective; there’s this adage about be¬ 
ing a pessimist in terms of years and an 
optimist in terms of decades, and that’s 
a good check against, “If I’m up until 2 
every night, things will change.” It’s not 
going to hinge on me; and it’s certainly 
not going to hinge on me as a sick, spaz, 
tired, burnt-out shell of a person. I won’t 
make the revolution irresistible by being 
a grouchy hag. [Laughs.] I’m not gonna do 
it. And that doesn’t mean I can check out, 
but it does mean that I don’t have to do ev¬ 
erything. So there’s this humility, which 
is tough for activists in general. And then 
it’s a lot about relationships. The people I 
work with now—I want to work with them 
in 20 years, 30 years. I want a movement 
that children can be a part of, that old 
people can be a part of. The relationships 
are as important as the end product. The 
end products kind of don’t matter. We all 
flamed out for the RNG; it was significant, 
but now it’s two years ago, and things aren’t 
appreciably better because so many of us 
worked so hard. 

I think it comes back to the means being what 
matters question. “Oh, well, what about the 
ends, what about the ends.” Well, no. 

Yeah. Ten years from now we might look 
back and say, “The RNG was the beginning 
of the end of the American empire,” but we 
can’t predict any of that. ® 


P U N K P L A N E T 35 







A t the callow age of 23, Dash Shaw has 
written and illustrated two graphic novels, 
Love Eats Brains and The Mothers Mouth, 
a highly acclaimed short story collection, God¬ 
dess Head, has seen his work appear in numer¬ 
ous anthologies, and still finds time to play bass 
in his band, also named Love Eats Brains, and 
act in various indie film projects. In the insular 
comics community Shaw has made a name for 
himself (and a good one it is) by willfully es¬ 
chewing the mainstream to follow his own de¬ 
cidedly original and peculiar muse. 

In person, Shaw is as much an anomaly 
as his work. He’s a former D&D nerd and Boy 
Scout, who girls fawn over and who emanates a 
relaxed sense of cool, even while effusing about 
favorite science fiction movies and the power of 
self-help courses. 

In the following interview, conducted on 
a typical sweltering day in Charlotte, North 
Carolina. Shaw talks about the influence of his 


Yeah, but my drawings were pretty vio¬ 
lent too. 

A couple of years ago in a profile on Ninthart. 
com you said: “I’m not like Crumb, who’s 
constantly drawing on a napkin wherever he 
goes. I do figure drawings, but I spend more 
time thinking about comics, the design and ev¬ 
erything, more than the actual hand-drawing 
time.” Is the drawing secondary to the concept 
in your comics? 

Usually when I’m sketching, I’m doing 
small thumbnail layouts for comics. Not 
casual figures or doodles. It’s more pre¬ 
liminary work on comics or an idea for a 
sequence. I like drawing and figure draw¬ 
ing, it’s just my weakness that I’m not one 
of those people. When I was working on 
“Echo and Narcissus” in Goddess Head a lot 
of it involved sitting in my dorm room 
just thinking of different ways that I could 


predictable. I understand that it’s mature 
to do the same thing over and over, like the 
filmmaker Ozu, but I prefer the immature 
filmmakers who are always trying to rein¬ 
vent their approach, even if they fall flat on 
their face sometimes. 

What about critical reaction to your comics. 

It seems to have been overwhelmingly posi¬ 
tive, but does it have any effect on your ap¬ 
proach? 

Most of the criticism has been positive. 
Some critics don’t get why I would choose 
to draw one way if it’s clear I can also draw 
another way that they find more appealing. 
Whenever I get an e-mail from someone 
saying they liked a story I did or have com¬ 
ments about one, or something like that, 
it’s great and means a lot more to me. It re¬ 
ally motivates me to get back to the drawing 
board. I guess it’s difficult for me _ 


father, his introduction to alternative comics, draw the same thing. Because the story is most comics criticism serious 


his melancholic homecoming, and his music. 
Oh—and since you were wondering; Dash is 
his real name. 

Interview by Robert Young 

You have a very unusual story in that your Dad 
was making comics with you when you were 
young. How old were you when that began? 

Very, very young. Before I could read actu¬ 
ally. My dad would write in the words so it 
was really early. I don’t know what age. 

So the visual language of comics was sort 
of imprinted on you even before you could 
read? 

Yeah, definitely. I think I was lucky or for¬ 
tunate that I didn’t have to fight my parents 
to get into comics. My dad had a box of un¬ 
derground comics, and he lived on Haight 
Street for awhile. And I would crawl into 
that space and look at those books before 
I should have—age-wise—been exposed to 
that. [Laughter.] 

Do you still have any of the comics you made 
together? 

Yeah, I have some. I have one where I re¬ 
ally wanted to see the movie Jaws but he 
wouldn’t let me see it, so he told me the 
story and I illustrated it. 

He thought it was too violent? 


already written for me and it has things 
like a chase scene in the woods, I had to 
think about different ways to do it and plan 
it out. That took more time than the actual 
putting the ink on the page. 

I know early in your career that you were 
strongly influenced by Paul Pope but you’ve 
since deviated far from your early style to a 
much more utilitarian approach; less flashy, 
more about servicing the story. To that end I 
see a Chester Brown influence, but what other 
artists have influenced you of late? 

By far the biggest influence on my regular 
drawing has been James McMullan’s High- 
Focus Drawing class at SVA. He wrote a 
book called High Focus Drawing that I rec¬ 
ommend to everyone. That class was life 
changing. Prior to taking that class, my 
drawing was incredibly insecure. I would 
try to mask my dead, flat drawings with 
stylish, brushy strokes, splatters, and other 
lame tricks. Looking at some of that stuff 
now makes me choke. Figure drawing is 
handy for comic drawing, but they’re dif¬ 
ferent animals entirely. I like all of the top 
cartoonists you’d think I would like: Ches¬ 
ter Brown, Chris Ware, Richard McGuire, 
etc. Even naming those few doesn’t feel 
right. The list is too long. My main com¬ 
plaint with a lot of the cartoonists around 
today is that they’re too consistent, too 


ics community is so small, which I like, but 
it makes most of the reviews more like sug¬ 
gested reading. It’s rare that there’s any in¬ 
telligent criticism or analysis. It’s a shame 
because I love reading criticism and analy¬ 
sis. I’ll regularly pick up a book I’ve read 
before just to read a new introduction or 
afterword, and Ray Carney’s “Path of the 
Artist” essays were very influential to me. 
The situation is changing, though. There 
is a small handful of smart comics critics 
now, and there will be more and more over 
time. The fluff will move aside. 

Can you talk a little about the Meathaus col¬ 
lective and your involvement with them? 

Meathaus publishes an anthology that I’ve 
contributed to, and they published a comic 
I did freshman year [at SVA] called Gar¬ 
den Head. They have a great website: www. 
meathaus.com with a blog and free com¬ 
ics. It’s really just a bunch of friends that 
occasionally pool some of their work into 
an anthology. There’s no clear leader or 
editor. Many of the artists have moved to 
different cities, so the website is a way for 
everyone to keep in touch. 

You went to The School of Visual Arts, right? 

Yeah, but I met them before I took one class 
at SVA, because I was friends with Becky 
[Cloonan] and there was SPXiles . . . 


36 PUNK PLANET 




SPXiles was the post-September 11 alterna¬ 
tive to the Small Press Expo, because it was 
canceled that year? 

Yeah. I moved to New York a week before 
September II, and classes were canceled 
for awhile. I went to SPXiles with Becky 
and I met those guys and they were some 
of the first friends I had in New York. The 
ones I hung with the most were Brandon 
Graham, Farel Dalrymple, Tom Herpich, 
and Jim Campbell. There were parties 
and I would talk to Tomer Hanuka and the 
other guys, but Brandon and I would wan¬ 
der the streets, and I’d go to bookstores 
with Tom. Up to that point I don’t think 
I’d seen any Chris Ware. Those guys knew 
all these comics, and they gave me a crash 
course in alternative comics. It was anoth¬ 
er situation where I completely lucked out. 

And yet you came from a background where 
you knew about underground comics from your 
Dad—people like Crumb and Spain, but not 
the current generation of cartoonists? 

I knew about the artists who were carried 
in the little store near my house, but they 
were sort of the pseudo-alternative artists. 
Like I knew about Sam K.ieth, but I didn t 


know about Dan Clowes. I knew about peo¬ 
ple like David Mack. 

The ones who were straddling alternative work 
and the mainstream? 

Paul Pope was in that category too. And 
you can see it in my work from that time. 
It was sort of [an amalgam of] Sam Kieth, 
Paul Pope, and David Mack. 

In an interview on The Pulse website you said 
you conceived the story “The Roots Hold Your 
Feet Into Place” from Goddess Head “One night 
when I was very frustrated when I was staying in 
Richmond, and I was feeling stuck there forever 
and helpless.” You’re back in Richmond now, do 
you still find it constraining? 

[Sighs.] I think that’s what my new book The 
Mothers Mouth is about. I was in New York 
and I was surrounded by a lot of successful 
people and I traveled around awhile, but 
it ended up that I was back in Richmond, 
going out with my high school sweetheart. 
And it was just a complete . . . 

Regression? 

Yeah it was a total regression. It was like 
the wind had been knocked out of me and 


I was back hanging out where I hung out 
in high school, and running into people 
that had stayed home. Richmond is an okay 
place, but I was starting to feel like I could 
be really successful as an illustrator and 
cartoonist, and it just went backwards at 
a point. You know that Civil War reenact¬ 
ment scene was about how my girlfriend 
and I would go back and do the same things 
we had done in senior year of high school. 
Which was kind of nice, but it was also su¬ 
per-depressing. 

I think most people would assume you’re being 
sarcastic when you mention a fascination with 
people like motivational speaker Tony Robbins 
and Michael Jackson. 

No, I’m not being sarcastic. Have you tak¬ 
en Tony Robbins’ Power Course? 

No, but that’s what I want to hear from you. 
You’re not being sarcastic. 

Yeah. 

I think most people are being too cool for 
school to reveal that sort of thing. 

This interview will reveal that none of 
these things are ironic, and I actually am a 
complete nerd. [Laughs.] 











You’ve also expressed a fascination with Mi¬ 
chael Jackson. 


I really love Michael Jackson too. I loved 
his performances with The Jackson 5. I 
think his abilities were forcibly pushed, 
but I think his goal was to be the consum¬ 
mate entertainer in all forms. Going to 
the courtroom dressed the way he did, his 
goal was a performance. And he succeed¬ 
ed, but I think it caused a lot of damage. 
Junior year [at SVA] I did a thesis on Mi¬ 
chael Jackson and I did these large comic 
paintings. I just got into all the themes 
of Michael Jackson. You know childhood, 
and these sexuality issues and appearance. 
I think I was kind of the laughing stock of 
SVA for that section; but recently there was 
that book Michael Jackson by Margo Jeffer¬ 
son and there weren’t even any photos in 
the book. It was a serious discussion about 
Michael Jackson and his interests; The El¬ 
ephant Man, Barnum & Bailey Circus. So 
that was reassuring because she ran over all 
the things I went over in my thesis. As kind 
of an essay about the issues. 

So you actually liked him as a young per¬ 
former? 

Oh yeah, he’s amazing. 

But you’re also interested in how he went off 
the rails. 

Yeah. And he’s not really . . . oh you can go 
on to the next question. 

No, continue your thought. 




fcfie Another's rfloutfi 


ALSO: (BEFORE) 

[ciose-up] back of Narcissus’ head 

[in detail] short hairs, bruises, irritated skin, a 




It’s just that I could talk about Michael 
Jackson for hours. 

What role do you play in your band, Love Eats 
Brains? 



I like playing in the band because it’s a social activity that’s work but also fun. 


I play bass, assist in writing songs—primarily 
the lyrics—and sing sometimes, but only on 
recordings. I can’t sing live because I get too 
nervous. James does all of the singing when 
we play live. James is my best friend and he 
went to SVA as a Fine Arts major for I years. 
He dropped out. We’ve lived together for the 
past 3 years and he taught me how to play bass 
and everything. 

Thus far you’re better known as a comics artist 
than a musician, but given the seductive qual¬ 
ity of live performance would you give up com¬ 
ics if the band became successful enough? 


I need to get away from the drawing board for a couple hours every day otherwise 
I go crazy, and I don’t like doing things that feel unproductive. I get depressed. 


No. I like playing in the band because it’s 
a social activity that’s work but also fun. I 
need to get away from the drawing board 
for a couple hours every day otherwise 
I go crazy, and I don’t like doing things 
that feel unproductive. I get depressed. So 
practicing is great because I don’t think 
about drawing while I’m doing it and I get 
to work on something with friends. James 
works on the band 


Does being a cartoonist in any way inform your 
music, or conversely does being a musician in 
any way inform your art? 

I don’t think so. Only as much as doing 
anything does. If I wasn’t working on this 
with my friends, I don’t think I would ever 
leave the house. And that would get very 
damaging. So it helps keep me tied to the 
real world. ® 

Robert Young is editor of The Comics Interpreter magazine. 


38 PUNK PLANET 








































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I t takes monolithic talent to forge a legacy in 
the world of music. For Jeremy Enigk, the 
overwhelmingly talented, somewhat mysteri¬ 
ous 32-year-old vocalist/guitarist/pianist behind 
the genre-defining Sunny Day Real Estate and 
the grandiose overtures of the Fire Theft, not 
to mention his own starkly honest solo work, 
establishing a legacy has been quite the tumul¬ 
tuous experience. While Enigk's highly-laud¬ 
ed, ceaselessly-evolving musical odyssey has 
brought the Washington native adulation and a 
sense of self-satisfaction, the journey has been a 
jagged one filled with hills and slumps; ecstasy 
and heartache; anxiety and elation. 

Much has been said about Sunny Day 
Real Estate, whose starkly beautiful sound and 
downright enigmatic collective persona was an 
introduction to the world of a then late-teens/ 
early-20s Enigk and his incomparably haunt¬ 
ing voice. This quality had consistently testi¬ 
fied with so much emotion that the underlying 
tones of melancholy, anger, and happiness all 
appeared ready to go to war with each other. 
In many cases, that sonic battle was simulta¬ 
neously waged within Enigk's own life. While 
Enigk’s Sunny Day brethren—most notably, 
guitarist Daniel Hoerner, bassist Nate Men¬ 
del and drummer William Goldsmith—played 
a major role in the cadence of their group, 
Enigk's raw emotion blistering its way to the 
surface by way of quivering, aching high notes 
and soaring choruses continues to draw listen¬ 
ers to this day. 

Yet as memorable as Sunny Day’s ebul¬ 
lient records and performances were, Enigk has 
also quietly and humbly forged a powerful col¬ 
lection of solo material over the past decade. 
The first was his 1996 solo LP Return of the 
Frog Queen, recorded during a brief Sunny Day 
hiatus. Although it has taken 10 years for his 
solo follow-up World Waits (Lewis Hollow Re¬ 
cords)—arguably his most intimate and reveal¬ 
ing suite of songs to date—Enigk has lost none 
of his blistering intensity. Most importantly, 
World Waits finds Enigk delving deeply as he 
ever has into his own admittedly reclusive spirit 
only to unveil his most honest reflections thus 
far committed to wax. 

As Enigk has progressed as an artist, so 
have the rumors surrounding his work, as well 
as his personality. Enigk, however, remains 
unaffected by speculation. And maybe the only 
way to truly come to that conclusion is by meet¬ 
ing the man himself. While coming off a bit 
nervous after a recent summer performance, 


Enigk quickly flashes a smile and opens up 
when he begins talking about his work and the 
transformative power that comes along with 
creating it. His enthusiasm for his new music, 
as well as a stronger grasp of his purpose in 
life, is punctuated by a chuckle, the rubbing of 
his close-cropped cranium, and the occasion¬ 
al wild arm gesticulation to hammer home a 
point. Most pertinent, however, is the focused 
look in his eyes, which appears free from the 
stress of the past. 

Taking a cue from the title of his new re¬ 
cord, as the world has waited for the next chap¬ 
ter of Enigk's constantly unfolding musical saga, 
his artistic legacy stands with a long-overdue 
confidence, which has come about primarily 
through probing the inner reaches of conscious¬ 
ness through his art—the best way Enigk knows 
how to express and expound. 

Interview by Brian Peterson 

The first track on World Waits is called “A 
New Beginning.” Is this record truly a fresh 
start for you? 

Yeah, it is a new beginning because given 
the past and everything I’ve been through 
I feel at this point in my life that there is a 
new horizon. That’s what “A New Begin¬ 
ning” means to me. It is a new day and I’ve 
been trying to take off the baggage of the 
past and start from scratch again and to 
remember what originally inspired me to 
be happy. Not so much with music, but in 
terms of being a human being. 

What inspired you to be happy in the first 
place? 

At one point in my life I got in the mindset 
of everything I ever wanted I expected to 
happen by a certain age. And it didn’t hap¬ 
pen that way, which was frustrating. So, I 
had to go to ground zero and rediscover 
that original inspiration. The happiness 
really comes back to friendship, the love 
for music, respect for self, love for family, 
and re-identifying with my spiritual na¬ 
ture as a human being. 

Many artists shy away from spirituality, but 
you’ve never been afraid to embrace the term 
and define it in your own way. 

Well, I am what I am. I never felt it necessary 
to be part of specific scene; I’d rather become 
whole as a human being. It would be nice to 
be included in some sort of scene on a broad 


level, because it has its perks. It makes you 
feel good because all eyes are on you. But in 
reality the most important thing is to have a 
healthy heart, soul, and mind. 

Why do you think so many people are unwilling 
to tap into their own spirituality? 

It differs from every individual. Some 
people were raised in a religious realm 
where they associate spirituality with re¬ 
ligion, when in actuality they are quite 
separate. Other people just don’t need it. 
Life isn’t all suffering. If someone just 
wants to hang out and enjoy their life then 
that’s awesome, so ignoring these things 
isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Maybe ig¬ 
norance can be bliss in that respect. As 
for me I feel there is a deeper meaning in 
life. I don’t like to believe that life is just 
physical and material. I believe in love 
and I think that love comes from a greater 
meaning, and that’s not something that 
can be examined in a nutshell, because 
the meaning of life varies among every¬ 
one. For example, I so happen to attach 
myself to music and that gives me clarity; 
it’s not the end-all, be-all of what makes 
me happy, but it makes me feel there is 
a purpose to my life, and that keeps me 
striving and keeps me alive. 

You seem to have arrived at a really good place 
in terms of self-contentment. How were you 
able to come back from your occasional rough 
patches in the past? 

Ultimately, it’s the desire to be positive. 
The circumstances that create negative 
thinking make you not want to think posi¬ 
tively. If there’s a certain circumstance 
that kicks me in the ass then I want to 
change that, because I don’t want to live in 
my world of unhappiness. So, I think it is 
will alone and certain ordeals that make 
people change. 

All of your previous work has helped you devel¬ 
op quite the legacy for a still-young artist. Has 
having that level of fame impacted you? 

I’m sure it has impacted me. The fact that 
the handful of fans that I do have ask me to 
continue to keep working has encouraged 
me to keep trying and putting new work 
out there. Either way, if nobody liked it I’d 
still be playing music because that’s what I 
love to do. But I guess it has impacted me 
on that level because I’ve made it public. 


40 PUNK PLANET 




Jeremy Enigk i 


PU^K PLANET 41 




































































































/ 

s 

«*■ 

partying and somewhat disillusioned 
right now. [Laughs.] But eventually the 
world, hopefully, will grow up to the 
age of about 40 and realize, “OK, my 
liver is starting to die, I’ve smoked too 
much and my lungs are killing me.” 
So, I hope that we move on to the next 
phase of human evolution. 

You’ve spoken of shutting out the world to fo¬ 
cus when working on your music. Does isola¬ 
tion conjure your muse? 

I need separation because I love hanging 
out with my friends and they are actu¬ 
ally my biggest obstacle. [Laughs.] I want 
to hang out with them all the time. I 
want to have conversations and sit down 
and have a glass of wine, and I’d rather 
do that these days, which is probably my 
largest challenge. I’d rather be spending 
time with my friends then really focus¬ 
ing hard. It’s so easy to chill. 

The chorus of “River to Sea” on World Waits 
is: “Turn around/life is in your hands.” When 
did you come to this realization and how has 
this impacted you as a person? 

I could relate to lyrics like that but I never 
really understood them until around the 
time we did the Fire Theft record. That’s 
when I started to understand that you are 
in control of your own destiny and you are 
responsible for your own happiness; you 
alone have the power to change your own 
world. For a period in my life I used to 
blame the outside world for my failures in 
life, and then I realized around that time 
that I was the one who had the problem. 

After accomplishing so much, what keeps you 
motivated to create? 

Number one is the fact that I love it. I don’t 
want to be pompous in any way, but I feel 
like music is what I’ve been called to do. 
It’s my place in the world and what I was 
given. At one point I wanted to drop it all 
away, but it would be a sin if I was to let it 
go, not only because I love it but because 
it’s changed other people’s lives. I’ve had 
people come up to ine after a show and 
tell me they wanted to commit suicide and 
one of my records saved them. It gives me 
a purpose and it’s good to have a purpose 
in life. ® 


People say, “Hey, keep going,” but I try not 
to let that into my head because I realize 
that when musicians get on stage it’s really 
just a mask of a human being. 

Do you feel like you’ve been able to peel off 
that mask little by little over the years? 

I don’t want to bullshit, although I tend 
to do that. [Laughs.] I don’t want to be that 
mask. When I get on stage I want to be the 
same person I am off-stage. That’s who I 
am. I think it’s silly to play rocker and to 
dress in rocker clothes and make your hair 
funny and wear the right shoes. I think 
falling into those notions is really all about 
conformity. I believe in the spirit of the 
individual. 

A lot of people focus on your musical past. 


Does that focus on the past bother you as an 
evolving artist? 

No, I’m proud of what I have done. Once 
again, it’s a part of my life and I have to 
embrace that. Either way, what I’m doing 
now is what I’m currently focusing on. If 
things aren’t as big now as they used to be 
then, that’s OK because I know in time the 
new work will catch on. It all comes from 
the same life. 

During a time when war and cynicism run ram¬ 
pant how do you maintain such a positive and 
hopeful demeanor? 

I just have a hope that the world con¬ 
sciousness will grow up. I feel like 
the world’s consciousness right now is 
about 18 years old. It’s like the world is 


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I n 1985, Claude Marks and a few other mem¬ 
bers of the Weather Underground purchased 
40 pounds of explosives to blow up a prison 
in Kansas. The intention, in conjunction with the 
Puerto Rican Independence group FALN (Armed 
Forces of National Liberation), was to free the 
imprisoned Puerto Rican nationalist Oscar Lo¬ 
pez. Law enforcement officials discovered the 
plot, however, and Marks went underground, 
living under an assumed name in Pittsburgh so 
his coworkers and neighbors wouldn’t notice he 
was on the FBI's Most Wanted list. After nine 
years, he turned himself in, and received a fine 
of $1000 and six years in prison. 

Now Marks is an archivist, and doesn’t 
open up about those days much anymore. His 
current work is just as radical, if a bit less de¬ 
structive: alongside Sele Nadel-Hayes, an ex¬ 
cessively bright and engaging young activist, 
he manages San Francisco’s Freedom Archives, 
a storehouse for over 8000 hours of the most 
insurrectionary audio ever recorded. Focus¬ 
ing on the progressive history of the Bay Area, 
the United States, and international solidarity 
movements, the collection has seeded music 
programs, news broadcasts, hip-hop record¬ 
ings, and educational projects throughout the 
country’s airwaves. 


All this revolutionary material sits in the 
Mission District in San Francisco, quietly col¬ 
lecting dust in an area of the country that’s seen 
as many changes as the people whose voices it 
holds. Until some high-school kid comes along, 
or some radio broadcaster who wants to shake 
things up, or some hip-hop poet about to record 
an album. That’s when Marks and Nadel-Hayes 
make history—their own, their region’s, and this 
nation’s—come alive. 

Interview by Anne Elizabeth Moore 

So can you give me a tour of what all you do 
here? 

Marks: First of all, we have this pretty ex¬ 
tensive collection of historical material. 
It’s cultural and political, music, poetry, 
and interviews going back over 30 years. 
Some of it’s in English, some of it’s in 
Spanish. It covers a lot of different interest 
areas and reflects the work of a lot of inde¬ 
pendent producers. 

How did the collection get started? 

Marks: We really want to create a way to tap 
into the history of progressive struggles in 
a way that people can easily interpret and 


reuse to inform people that weren’t alive 
or weren’t conscious when those things 
happened. It’s a lot of primary source ma¬ 
terial. Take for example the occupation 
of Alcatraz, or the prison movement, the 
Panthers’ poetry that emerges out of the 
Mission in the ’70s that’s all focused on 
Latino stuff either in the streets or the 
community, or the coup in Chile. Those 
are the kinds of things we have. 

How were they originally gathered? 

Marks: What we cobbled together is from 
contacting independent producers. We’re 
really trying to create a people’s resource, 
a community based resource. Not an in¬ 
stitutional resource, like at universities, 
where access is more problematic and de¬ 
fined by a lot of protocols. 

Nadel-Hayes: I feel like every time I travel 
somewhere, someone says, “Hey you know 
what, my uncle has every tape of blah blah 
and we should really give that to you guys.” 
There are people all over the country, 
all over the world that have pieces of huge 
movements that have happened. 

How is the collection organized? 


44 PUNK PLANET 





, 1985 , Claude Marks and a few other members of the Weather Und < 


ground purchased 40 pounds of explosives to bit 


Marks: We’ve been working with dozens 
of people who have come as students or 
people out of the community to volunteer 
their time. Their goal is to catalogue the 
material and figure out how to reuse it as 
a project. We do at least two documenta¬ 
ry projects a year. They’re not necessarily 
formal documentaries. We did something 
with our youth interns called the Vinyl 
Project, which is literally a vinyl album of 
sound samples to be dropped into whatever 
is being created. The whole idea is to give 
people an idea of how to tap into this stuff 
and interpret it and fuse it into emerging 
culture. So we’ve got garage people, jazz 
people, hip-hoppers and people who are 
doing much more formal work all at the 
same time being able to sample this stuff. 
We want it out in the world. We want it up 
on the web. We don’t own it. We’re trying 
to figure out ways people can tap into it. So 
all this time this cataloguing is happening 
and young people are in here from high 
school on up. 

So you must have an outreach arm for high 
school students? 


Nadel-Hayes: We want to provide a space 
for young people to really think critically 
about what it means to be an activist when 
there’s this long history of people that look 
like them getting locked up and otherwise 
marginalized for political work. We have 
young people who come here, learn about 
the history of the Black movement, of the 
Ghicano movement, of political artists, 
poets, and musicians, and then take it out 
to other young people. So much of this 
material should be taught in schools, but 
to have young people equipped with the 
knowledge to teach each other is a whole 
different level of impact. For us, out¬ 
reach isn’t just about exposing people to 
the materials here, but to give them access 
with enough depth that it affects how they 
see the world and how they work to bring 
change in it. 

Do intellectual property rights issues concern 
you? Do you have policies in place for the re¬ 
use of this material? 

Marks: We don’t have anything formal 
in place. But because some number of us 
were part of recording and broadcast¬ 
ing materials originally, we’re aware that 


it sort of falls into this grey area. We also 
have a contractual release from The Paci¬ 
fica Foundation for anything that we hold 
that went over their air, so anything in 
our possession that was used in programs 
produced on Pacifica back then, we have 
a right to use in an unlimited way. We’re a 
little more careful when we produce a doc¬ 
umentary that’s going to get replicated and 
put into stores. 

Can you give me an example of how you might 
work, then, with work intended for sale? 

Marks: Earlier this year we produced an au¬ 
dio CD and a book on Robert F Williams 
and Mabel Williams who led the NAACP 
in North Carolina and armed the com¬ 
munity against the Klan. They were forced 
into exile and did a radio program in Cuba 
for years, were in China, and traveled to 
Africa—they were internationalizing the 
more militant wing of the Black Liberation 
Struggle in the US starting from the 1950 s * 
We worked with the family very closely for 
two and a half years before we put this piece 
out and we got a lot of historical materi¬ 
als together and did an extensive interview 
with Mabel Williams. H Our approach as 


P U N K P L A N E T 45 



people who produce documentaries is to 
really empower, as much as possible, those 
who are the actual people involved. Over the 
course of time we get a lot of feedback, have 
many conversations about how well the doc¬ 
umentary represents their sense of history. 
This is a principled approach rather than to 
say we have artistic license to interpret your 
life. It’s more about “does this feel right?” 
That commits us to philosophical and polit¬ 
ical conversations with our subjects, which 
we did. This means that the process of put¬ 
ting something out is on a longer timeline 
and is very collectivized. Production is also 
collectivized in that we put together a work 
team and is also diverse in a lot of ways and 
totally cross-generational. I’ve been doing 
documentaries a long time and somebody 
who hasn’t been doing it as much brings a 
whole new perspective to the work. 

Yet working collaboratively can take a lot of 
time. 

Marks: If we’re working collaboratively with 
a group of people that bring different things 
to the table and everybody is hashing out the 
end result—or we re working with a fami¬ 
ly—we end up with something that everyone 
feels really good about. It takes a long time, 
but we’ re not under time constraints, I 
think it makes the history more honest and 
it makes it speak broadly. A lot of the time 
history is viewed as nostalgia—“Oh that was 
so cool [but] that’s pretty irrelevant.” All 
the textbooks are written like that: “So who 


cares? History is a dead end. There you have 
it.” This is not that. 

Somebody’s already got that covered. 

Marks: We’re trying to figure out a differ¬ 
ent approach. And that cohabits with this 
idea of people being able to sample this 
historical stuff and reinterpret it. Owner¬ 
ship isn’t defined by an academic approach 
or by who has possession of an artifact or 
anything like that. If it comes out of public 
moment, that s who owns it. 

Do you position yourselves as part of the me¬ 
dia reform and media activism movements 
that are happening right now, or do you see 
yourselves as more of the independent media 
within that? 

Nadel-Hayes: What we do here is media 
reform. In 2005 , one of our interns and 
I went to St Louis for the National Con¬ 
ference for Media Reform. After being 
immersed in the work of the Freedom Ar¬ 
chives for several months, she had a good 
sense of the importance of having commu¬ 
nity voices present in media in a meaning¬ 
ful way. Being at the conference opened 
her eyes about a lot of things about the way 
she watched TV and how much her voice is 
not reflected in any of the messaging por¬ 
traying young people, young women, or 
people of color. At the same time though, 
the conference was also a challenging 
space because there was so little focused 
on taking action. For a 20-year-old to feel 


cut off from the “media reform movement” 
as it was constructed in that mainstream 
space—it’s not a surprise, but it’s also really 
frustrating. 

If not here, then where? 

Nadel-Hayes: Right. It’s here in this neigh¬ 
borhood. She should be standing in front 
of 25,000 people instead of A 1 Franken. 
We’ve heard his voice before. And to have a 
bunch of people in the room who are very 
passionate about having different voices 
heard. It’s important for them to know that 
there’s a long line of people with voices who 
haven’t been heard. 

Marks: I think the problem with media 
reform is that it’s reform. The starting 
place is shifting so far to the right along 
with all the other politics in the last years 
and decades that the starting point is es¬ 
sentially a corporate model. Is the goal 
to have Democracy Now! on another 200 
stations, or is it to create other stations 
that represent people who aren’t the Amy 
Goodmans of the world, who aren’t just 
constantly talking about what happens 
in Washington. Hillary Clinton is not 
going to make this a better world for us. 

The question is how to create things 
that are much more challenging to the 
state, to the empire, and to root them 
in a way where people can access them in 
the language they can hear that can give 
them some direction that doesn’t just 


46 PUNK PLANET 








e did a program 
as very active in 


on the Coup in Chile for thpin. uo 

the scene and for the first time in /^/ / y™ versary and one of the people vihowo 'Iced on ^ 

e recording of her grat^ a ^ 

' m S M wq 31/oquiAs iei|Mauios s,i| \m m wo ^ 


lead them into an electoral path. Not 
that we shouldn’t ever think about that, 
but that’s not the answer, really. That’s a 
reformist answer; It’s not a revolution¬ 
ary answer. I think we’re driven by some¬ 
thing a lot more powerful in terms of a 
vision than just, “How do we get Bush 
out?” and “Anybody but Bush is OK.” 
When in fact everybody in Washington 
ain’t OK. 

Radio people tell me your collection tends to 
not focus on what we think of as the key fig¬ 
ures in any movement, but rather on the peo¬ 
ple who did the work. This in itself is a fairly 
radical notion, but I would think this would 
also make it hard for you to get funding, be¬ 
cause our culture does operate on celebrity. 

Marks: [Sarcastically.] We’ve found it so easy to 
get funding. 

So how are you funded? 

Marks: Donors. Every 20-dollar check 
makes a big difference. We have a very 
small budget, we have a very small over¬ 
head, and we don’t fly around to all the 
media reform conferences that exist. 
The only way we’re gonna go is if some¬ 
body wants to hear our point of view 
somehow represented, One thing that 
we keep talking about—although there 
aren’t the resources to really make it 
happen—is that we’re not totally unique. 
There are people who collect graphics; 
There are publications; There are dis¬ 


tributors. I think it’s really important 
for us to connect people doing important 
stuff outside of that corporate context 
and figure out a way in which the collec¬ 
tive strength of that can help create new 
avenues or enrich the ones that exist. 

So do you have a model for that sort of net¬ 
working? A plan? 

Marks: We’re working on some mod¬ 
els for that, but we have limited capac¬ 
ities. We’re working with the Manila- 
town Heritage Foundation and their 
thing is the struggle against gentrifica- 
tion in an Asian community on the bor¬ 
ders of Chinatown and the International 
Hotel struggle. I don’t know how to famil¬ 
iar you are with it, but this is a struggle that 
took many years to prevent the eviction of 
people out of this hotel and, ultimately, 
the sheriff’s department literally rammed 
their way into the hotel. We’re helping 
them gather, catalogue, and digitize that 
material with the idea that there’ll be a cir¬ 
culating copy in their community center, 
so the history of that struggle can reside 
in that building as a resource to that com¬ 
munity where it came from. That’s restor¬ 
ative— literally restorative. It means that 
history doesn’t have to leave that build¬ 
ing. It contains the chronicles the strug¬ 
gle— literally, with a thousand people in 
the street being clubbed and run over by 
horses—over that city block. That’s kind of 
what we want to see happen. 


Nadel-Hayes: The children of those ac¬ 
tivists are now working as interns on the 
restoration. That’s not the only case of 
something like that happening: we did 
a program on the Coup in Chile for 
the 30-year anniversary and one of the 
people who worked on that program, 
her parents covered the Coup in 1973- 
Also, her grandfather, who was a poet 
that just recently passed, was very ac¬ 
tive in the scene and for the first time in 
her life she was able to hear a recording 
of her grandfather doing his own mate¬ 
rial. It’s somewhat symbolic but it’s real. 
It’s not just an abstraction, it’s a real 
thing that can happen, If we can make 
it happen here, somebody can make it 
happen somewhere else. It should hap¬ 
pen everywhere. The Detroit Riots: create 
a center. Do it. Bring the children and 
their grandchildren, their nephews and 
nieces in of the people who died in De¬ 
troit in the urban rebellion and recreate 
that history. Find the artifacts. That’s 
just the example on top. Alcatraz could 
be very different if the people who occu¬ 
pied it controlled how the story was being 
told. That in itself becomes restorative 
and radicalizing. 

The very act of retelling that story is pro¬ 
found. 


Marks: And now, the following genera¬ 
tions have started telling it. ® 


P U N K P L A N E T 47 



r 



F or someone that has been involved with 
a number of highly influential bands, very 
little seems to be known about musician/ 
artist Tara Jane O’Neil. Some of the mystery 
behind O'Neil is due to her personality; her solo 
work gives the impression that she is both high¬ 
ly introspective and still emotionally guarded. At 
the same time, it is impossible to overlook the 
fact that O’Neil is female in the male-centered 
world of independent music. Her track record 
in the indie scene is impeccable (stints in such 
important acts as Rodan, the Sonora Pine, and 
Retsin), yet her endeavors have never received 
the volume of press afforded her male counter¬ 
parts. And while one interview does not revi¬ 
sionist history make, the work of O’Neil proves 
it’s high time to offer a corrective to the accept¬ 
ed male-dominated narrative of underground 
music in the United States. 

Punk Planet recently sat down with O’Neil 
to discuss not only her place in such a history, 
but also to talk about her activities in the here 
and now. Not surprisingly, O’Neil has much on 
her plate these days: touring behind the release 
of her latest solo album In Circles , attempt¬ 
ing to find time to continue painting (a book of 
O’Neil’s art was published in 2004 by Tokyo- 
based Map Press), and striving to push her 
music beyond the standard singer/songwriter 
sound. It is a lot for any one person to take on. 
But after speaking with her, it’s clear that O'Neil 
will be just fine. 

Interview by Michael Carriere 

You seem to have a gift for capturing that cer¬ 
tain sense of wonder and innocence that of¬ 
ten marks the experiences of adolescence and 
early adulthood. So I’m interested in your own 




childhood: were you born and raised in Louis¬ 
ville? Did coming from such a place affect your 
development or outlook as an artist? 

I was moved around a lot as a kid: it was 
my training for the nomadic adulthood 
I’ve adhered to. I landed in Louisville for 
high school and that was where I start¬ 
ed playing music. The town was and is 
pretty sleepy, so it was a good place to hide 
out for a few months and get stuff done. 
Old Louisville is the neighborhood where 
the “Rocket House” was, which is the 
most haunted place I’ve ever lived. That 
probably got into the development/out- 
look somewhere. I guess I’ll always prefer a 
slow ride over the races. 

What was Louisville like as you came of age 
during the late 1980s/early 1990s? I picture it 
as more female-friendly than the other predomi¬ 
nant scenes of that era. And more broadly, how 
have you managed to fit into a world that has 
forever been incredibly male-dominated? 

I was in a band called Drinking Woman. 
We were four women. There was one oth¬ 
er band in town with a couple of ladies, 
but that was pretty much it. I was defi¬ 
nitely supported by my friends and mu¬ 
sical peers, but it was a total dude ranch. 
Things have changed some in that city 
and some other cities I’ve visited over the 
last 13 years, but I’m still amazed how cer¬ 
tain scenes, labels, places, can’t expand 
and get some gender and artistic diver¬ 
sity going on. I moved to New York when 
I was 2 , 1 ; that looked a lot more female 
than the Louisville scene. I’m on the West 
Coast now and the scene is full of men 
and women and people in between. It’s a 


good place for me to be. I sometimes for¬ 
get what people still have to deal with in so 
many cities, being something other than a 
straight white bio male. It’s hard to live in 
or respond to the “male-dominated” soci¬ 
ety. They used to call that society normal, 
but it’s really not true. 

At the same time, your previous bands—Rodan, 
the Sonora Pine, and Retsin—were all critically 
acclaimed yet, for the most part, commercially 
ignored. Why do you think this was the case? 
And has such a response, or lack thereof, af¬ 
fected the way you approach music? 

I think the effect of all this is that I can’t 
pretend to know and shouldn’t think on 
how the music industry works. Energy 
spent on trying to figure out that stuff is 
energy taken away from what I’m actu¬ 
ally here to do. It seems like it would be 
easier and more effective to try and find 
a benefactor. Today, I’m just excited to 
go on tour with Sir Richard Bishop and 
the Charalambides. They probably would 
fall in the same category. In the spring I 
did a tour with my friends Samara Lubesl- 
ki and Michael Hurley. Us overlooked art¬ 
ists get to look to one another and really 
get turned on in a way that looking at your 
name on a chart doesn’t. Still, a benefactor 
wouldn’t be bad. 

What has played a role in your musical evolu¬ 
tion from the days of Rodan to the present? 
You’ve obviously changed a great deal over the 
years, but I’m also curious if anything has re¬ 
mained a constant over this time period. 

When I started playing with those Rodan 
boys in Louisville L was 19. As my teen- 

































































y guess I’ll always 
prefer a slow ride over 
the races...” 



painting by Tara Jane O’Neil 










r 


^Sometimes the 
artists need to 
takeupthefight, 
and sometimes 
they need to 
create a resting 
place . . . 

age self, I went to straight-edge shows and 
[Grateful] Dead shows, listened to Prince 
and Joni Mitchell, wrote songs akin to 
Leonard Cohen and played raucous bass 
in loud bands. I kind of do the same things 
now. I’ve been going on tour for the last 13 
years and learned a lot. My functions are 
kind of the same as they ever were. The 
real difference is in my personal evolution 
and my intentions. 

Speaking of such personal evolution, I’m 
struck by the almost ethereal quality of many 
of the songs on “In Circles.” The songs seem to 
float through the air and, in the process, create 
an aura of warmth and intimacy. What were 
the real-life experiences—if any—that inspired 
this set of songs? 

The experiences on the record come from 
my real life, my feeling and reaction and 
confusion and solitary hope. I guess songs 
can be the imprint left after someone walks 
in sand, or the stain in your eye after you 
look at the sun. It’s not the foot or the light 
itself, but what it left behind. I’m not re¬ 
ally reporting and I’m definitely not writ¬ 
ing fiction. I am excited about the way mu¬ 
sic can be a magic wand. It’s kind of like my 
drawings: songs and visuals can be an op¬ 
portunity to escort the mundane parts of 
life into the exalted and sometimes fantastic 
realms. I’m not usually looking for ground¬ 
ing in my musical output. 

What do you feel the relationship between 


your music—and perhaps the independent 
music scene more generally—and contempo¬ 
rary society should look like? There is a quote 
attributed to you and former bandmate Cyn¬ 
thia Nelson: Retsin gives the world a good 
time. We’re not trying to prove diddly shit, 
we’re just minding our business and making 
songs. Is that still your approach to music? 
Obviously, I ask this question with the tremen¬ 
dous trauma that the world has seen during 
the past five years or so in mind. 

Yeah, the world is traumatized. It has 
been since fires created a land mass and 
Pangea pulled apart. I think now there 
is definitely a different air circulating 
the globe and affecting everyone—maybe 
the air wasn’t so rich with hell IO years 
ago, or I wasn’t available to that air. But 
societies have always been interested in 
violence. And sometimes the artists need 
to take up the fight, and sometimes they 
need to create a resting place or magic 
place for themselves and for others. It 
does seem true that culture really sparks 
the people into thinking and seeking and 
acting. Music can be a super-powerful 
tool. It completely changed my life. And 
I’d love to be so connected to what makes 
things work that I could write a song to 
end all madness and violence. 

I’m struck by how you balance traditional 
songwriting with instrumental and noise-ori¬ 
ented tracks. What do each of these approach¬ 
es do for you? 

I think they used to be warring factions, 
but they have reached some kind of mu¬ 
tual compromise these days. When I’m 
not playing songs I write, I’m playing 
sounds. There isn’t much recorded his¬ 
tory of the “noisier” part of my sound¬ 
ing, though that might change soon. I 
feel like the last couple EPs I made and 
the new record are acceptable synthe¬ 
ses of these approaches. It’s kind of like 
anything we do—each activity allows us 
things others don’t. I love to cook, but 
sometimes I really like to sit down and 


U 




\ 

50 PUNK PLANE 


enjoy something someone else made, you 
know? Playing improvised sound stuff is 
a totally different experience for me than 
singing and playing guitar and making 
these songs I wrote happen. It’s awesome 
to notice when I take the song someplace 
unexpected and find my way back, and it’s 
awesome when a structure appears inside 
of a free-sound swarm. 

Then what is the relationship between your 
music and your art do they come from a simi¬ 
lar creative source, or are the based on entirely 
different inspirations? 

I feel pretty lopsided after a tour and need 
to sit down and make some scratches on a 
surface. After months of scratching I get 
the itch for playing on the road again. I’m 
not sure if the two really have their own 
relationship. I’ve heard some people say 
that my music sounds like my art looks. It 
is all coming from the same source, find¬ 
ing different ways out, and different ways 
back in to this person. 

And what does the future hold for all of your 
assorted endeavors? 

Immediate future: finishing music for an 
independent documentary about Japanese 
balloon bombs and touring the west with 
Sir Richard Bishop and Charalambides. 
Staying home this winter and spending 
as much time as I can on paintings and 
drawings. Playing drums in a slow metal 
band, playing in an acoustic guitar duo, 
and collaborating with a noise group. I’ll 
probably write some more guitar songs. I 
have a book of visual art slated to be re¬ 
leased by Yeti Publishing in the spring, 
so I’ll be working on that. Further along: 
finding a label to release my instrumen¬ 
tal music, playing All Tomorrow’s Parties 
in April and touring Europe. I wouldn’t 
mind doing finger-painting classes with 
developmentally disabled adults. I’d like to 
find some source of income and maybe get 
a patch of land and build my environment 
out of cob structures and old train con¬ 
tainer cars. ® 
























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While most best-of-year lists stick to predictable topics like best 
records or books, we decided to open things up considerably and 
invite Punk Planet contributors, as well as folks from all walks of the 
underground, to come up with lists of 10 things they truly cared about 
during the last year. With lists from musicians, writers, label owners, 
comics artists, radio hosts, and tons more, the 25 pages of Top 10 
lists that follow give a clear look into the psyche of the underground. 





TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2006 

(no order) 


BY DAVE HOFER, PUNK PLANET 
REVIEWS EDITOR 

1. The Lawrence 
Arms— Oh! Cal¬ 
cutta! (Fat) 

2. Cannibal 
Corpse — Kill (Metal 
Blade) 

3. Frightmare— 

Bringing Back the Bloodshed (Ra- 
zorback) 

4. Mr. Lit — Mo’ Mega (Def Jux) 

5. Cretin — Freakery (Relapse) 

6. Lair of the Minotaur — The Ulti¬ 
mate Destroyer (Southern Lord) 

7. V/A — Good God! A Gospel Funk 
Hymnal (Numero Group) 

8. Kashmere Stage Band — Texas 
Thunder Soul 1968-1974 (Now 
Again/Fat Beats) 

9. The Steinways— Missed the Boat 
(Cold Feet) 

10. Dim Mak— Knives of Ice (Wil- 
lowtip) 


TOP 10 LPs I BOUGHT THIS 
YEAR THAT DIDN’T COME 
OUT THIS YEAR (A-G) 

(no order) 


BY DAVE HOFER, PUNK 
PLANET REVIEWS EDITOR 

1. Artifacts — Between a 
Rock and a Hard Place 

2. Diamond — Hatred, Pas¬ 
sions, and Infidelity 

3. Eric B. & Rakim — Follow 
the Leader 

5. The Casket Lottery— 

Survival is for Cowards 

6. GZA — Liquid Swords 

7. De La Soul—De La Soul Is Dead 

8. Exit 13— Ethos Musick 

9. Funkadelic— Maggot Brain 

10. Deltron 3030—S/T 


10. Death Cab for Cuti e—Plans 

With 2005’s Plans, I was very 
guilty of passing this off as a 
timid retread. Not until I saw 
the Directions DVD in 2006 did 
the record click with me. Seeing 
it this way, I realized that Plans 
flows like a soundtrack, but a 
good soundtrack that stands on 
its own apart from the visuals. 

9. Explosions in the Sky —The 
Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place 

Getting to review the How 
Strange, Innocence reissue for Punk 
Planet in late 2005, I rediscov¬ 
ered a band I originally tossed 
off as a Godspeed/Mogwai 
cousin. Earth is definitely more 
welcoming than their other re¬ 
cords and it’s their best so far. 

8. Converge —No Heroes 

2006 saw me get back into 
modern metal big time. I have 
always liked Metallica and 
Pantera, but I hadn’t heard 
many modern metal bands that 
really blew me away for a long 
time. Along with Killswitch 
Engage and All That Remains, 
Converge made me 
realize that not all 
things detuned 
and screamy have 
to be contrived 
angst-fests. 
Converge’s pre¬ 
vious record, 
You Fail Me, was 
in regular ro¬ 
tation in my CD player in 
2006. When I heard No Heroes 
in October ’06, I felt like the 
band had blown You Fail Me out 
of the water. Definitely a rawer 
record and not some easy re¬ 
gurgitation, No Heroes excels in 
its own ways. 



MY TOP 10 RECORDS OF I 
2006 (INCLUDING ONES I 
NOT RELEASED IN 2006) 


BY ERIC GRUBBS, PUNK PLANET 
REVIEWER 

Special note: Ranking records other than 
my utmost favorites in one particular 
year is difficult. Plus, I’ve never under¬ 
stood why people only rank records that 
came out thatjear. So, here’s a rough 
estimate of my favorite records of 2006, 
with a definite Top 3 down below. 


7. The Paper Chase— Now You Are 
One of Us 

Mixing tonal and atonal post¬ 
hardcore with pianos and 
strings along with audio clips 
from obscure horror films 
may sound like putting ice 
cream on pizza with a little bit 
of hot sauce. Thankfully, the 
end result isn’t a ham-handed 
trainwreck. Along with Cur¬ 
sive, this is a band that sounds 
like what post-hardcore really 


influenced instead of the kid¬ 
die-mall version. 

6. Belle and Sebastian —The Life 
Pursuit 

No matter how amazing Belle 
and Sebastian’s subsequent 
records are, so many people 
brush them off as “Not as 
Good as If You’re Feeling Sinister.” 
The Life Pursuit is as good as their 
best stuff even if it is a little 
more electric and louder. 

5. TV on the Radio —Return to 
Cookie Mountain 

It’s not every day that a record 
can remind me of both Prince 
and My Bloody Valentine, but 
that’s not the sole reason why I 
like this record so much. Be¬ 
neath the layers of falsetto vo¬ 
cals, wavy guitars, and effects 
lay some really tuneful songs 
that don’t meander. 

4. Neko Case—Fox Confessor 
Brings the Flood 

With a voice that soothes as 
much as a hot shower does, 
Case’s first proper album for 
Anti- is some of her best work 
to date. A crafty use of reverb 
opens the scope of the songs 
into something beyond just 
country, folk and gospel. Prior 
to hearing this record, I was 
more familiar with her mate¬ 
rial with the New Pornogra- 
phers. Getting really into her 
solo material with this record, 

I tend to forget that she’s that 
golden egg on songs like “Let¬ 
ter from an Occupant.” 

3. Secret Machines —Ten Silver 
Drops 

Clocking in at 45 minutes 
with only eight tracks, Ten Silver 
Drops may sound like a disas¬ 
trous journey through prog- 
rock excess. Instead, here’s 
a record that doesn’t try and 
overload your head with blasts 
of loud rock or mellow mush. 
Yes, there are a lot of layers of 
swirly keyboards, brittle gui¬ 
tars and subdued vocals here, 
but they are in mini-epics that 
don’t feel like bloated epics. 

2. Blackpool Lights —This Town’s 
Disaster 

The background on this band 


sounds like a recipe for pure 
vanilla: former Get Up Kids 
member forms a band that 
plays songs in the vein of mid¬ 
period Replacements/early 
Westerberg solo. Regardless, 
these eleven songs are some of 
the catchiest songs I’ve heard 
all year long. The sing-along 
element to these songs (espe¬ 
cially in the chorus) is what 
sells them, even if it sounds a 
little too polished for others. 

1. Cursive —Happy Hollow 

I wrote a few hundred words 
about this record in Punk Planet 
76 and I’m sure I could write 
a few hundred more. Instead, 
I’ll give you the Cliff Notes 
version. This record has a 
storyline, but there are no 13- 
minute self-important videos, 
graphic novels, bonus CDs or 
storybooks that try and tell the 
whole story. Questioning mat¬ 
ters that are not questioned 
enough in the lyrics (like 
religion), Tim Kasher and 
Ted Stevens hit a number of 
homeruns. Plus, the music is as 
strong. Implementing a small 
horn section in a number of 
songs, there is a degree of dirty 
jazz involved with the dissonant 
Cursive sound you’ve come to 
know. Why is it top of my list? 
Because it’s an album that has 
a beginning, middle and end. 
Sure, there are some songs that 
are better than others, but it’s 
incredibly consistent. 


TOP 10 THINGS I READ 
IN 2006 _____ 


BY SLIM MOON, FOUNDER, KILL 
ROCK STARS 

1. Frankenstein; or, The Modern 
Prometheus 

2. Middle march 

3. Sister Carrie 

4. Tess of the D'urbervilles 

5. Little Women 

6. The Once and 
Future King 

7. The Koran 

8. Sometimes A 
Great Notion 

9. Madame Bovary 

10. The Age of Innocence 



56 PUNK PLANET 





TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2006 


BY ART ETTINGER, PUNK PLANET 
REVIEWER AND THE MANAGING 
EDITOR OF THE HORROR MOVIE 
MAGAZINE ULTRA VIOLENT. 

1. Mouth to Mouth 



Director Alison 
Murray pulls no 
punches in Mouth 
to Mouth, the best 
wayward youth 
movie since Romper 
Stomper. The film 
stars Ellen Page of 
Hard Candy fame and 
is still searching 
for the audience it 
richly deserves. 


2. The Night Listener 

Despite starring Robin Wil¬ 
liams, this bold and engaging 
thriller was a box office flop. 
It’s one of the smartest main¬ 
stream horror films in years, 
and is definitely one to watch 
for on DVD. 


3. The Quiet 

Jamie Babbit, the director of 
Butl’m a Cheerleader, took a major 
chance by directing this campy 
exploitation parody of suburban 
teenage rage. Another com¬ 
mercially mishandled gem from 
Sony Pictures Classics, The Quiet 
is the funniest film of 2006. 

4. Wordplay 

Even for those who find cross¬ 
words mundane, Wordplay is a 
fascinating look at those ob¬ 
sessed with the puzzles. Culmi¬ 
nating in a national crossword 
competition, Wordplay remark¬ 
ably brings entertainment to a 
seemingly boring subject. 

5. The Heart is Deceitful Above All 
Things 

When the discovery of the JT 
Leroy fraud flooded the media, 
it seemed as though Asia 
Argento’s masterful Leroy 
adaptation was set for a wide 
art house release. Unfortu¬ 
nately, critics and audiences 
were so outraged by Leroy’s 
nonexistence that this kick-ass 
film barely played theatrically. 

6. Slither 

Unlike the overly hyped-up 
Snakes on a Plane, Slither actually 


delivers the goods. It’s easily 
the greatest monster movie of 
the decade, overshadowing the 
overrated Descent. 

7. The Notorious Bettie Page 

Mary Harron’s use of black 
and white photography for the 
majority of this biopic makes 
it the best-looking film of the 
year. It’s not a plot-centered 
or character-centered work, 
but its visual excellence car¬ 
ries it through its short run¬ 
ning time. 

8. Wassup Rockers 

Larry Clark goes punk with 
this outrageous and hilarious 
portrait of a group of hardcore 
kids from South Central Los 
Angeles. Arguably Clark’s best 
film to date, Wassup Rockers is a 
blast from start to finish. 

9. Tamara 

The horror boom of the past 
IO years allowed for limited 
theatrical screenings of this 
fun Carrie knockoff. Fans of 
female-centric revenge films 
won’t want to miss it. 

10. American Hardcore 

Like the book it is based on, 
American Hardcore is flawed yet 
voraciously entertaining. Many 
punk viewers will find some¬ 
thing in it to gripe about, but 
it’s a must-see nonetheless. 


TOP 10 LP’S I BOUGHT THIS 
YEAR THAT DIDN’T COME ■ 
OUT THIS YEAR (H-Z) J 

(no order) 


BY DAVE HOFER, PUNK PLANET 
REVIEWS EDITOR 

1. Suffocation — Despise the Sun EP 

2. Quicksand — Manic Compression 

3. Raekown — Only Built 4 
Cuban Linx 

4. Show & AG— Goodfellas 
5. Slayer — Seasons 
in the Abyss 

6. Velvet Under¬ 
ground, the—S/T 
(their third album) 

7. The Pharcyde— 

Labcabincalifornia 

8. INI — Center of Attention 

9. Neurosis— Times of Grace 

10. Los Natas — Toba Trance 



TOP 10 LIVE SHOWS THAT ■ 
REINVIGORATED MY FAITH ■ 
IN THE STATE OF MUSIC AND 
PEOPLE IN GENERAL, 2006 d 


BY SARAH MOODY, PUNK PLANET 
REVIEWER 

1. A Silver Mt Zion + Carla Bozu- 
lich—Neumos, Seattle 

To me, ASMZ is the perfect 
band, or group, or whatever 
you’d like to call them, living 
up fully to the ideals that they 
put forth in their music. They 
came through Seattle on their 
first US tour, and I became 
witness to the most inspiring 
live show I’ve ever seen—mi¬ 
crophones crowded around 
the center of the stage, Efrim’s 
sharp comments, these huge 
compositions coming to life 
and offering a strange kind of 
hope. The evening ended with 
“The Triumph of our Tired 
Eyes”—few groups exist today 


audience as “ladies and gentle¬ 
men” before going off on some 
widespread tangent. The more I 
see them live, the more respect 
I have for everyone involved in 
this group. 

3. Dead Moon—Funhouse, Seattle 

My first time being able to see 
Dead Moon and I knew halfway 
what to expect—the Jack Dan¬ 
iels candle, the three members 
pushing 6o— but they blew ev¬ 
eryone in that room out of the 
water for two hours straight, 
putting all younger bands to 
shame. One of the best mo¬ 
ments was watching Andrew 
Loomis pour beer onto his 
drumhead, so that when he 
pounded it for “Dead Moon 
Night,” the song became punc¬ 
tuated by beer flying straight up 
into the air. All three members 
are legends in their own right. 



that can fill a room with that 
type of honest admiration. 

2. Subtle + Fog + Jel—Neumos, 
Seattle 

Whenever I’d heard Doseone on 
record, I assumed the vocals had 
been sped up during produc¬ 
tion, or some such trickery had 
been used—not so, apparently. 
Hearing him rap live is like lis¬ 
tening to your favorite emcee 
on fast forward, only better. All 
members dressed in bright red, 
a huge lock with arms made up 
the background setting, and 
Dose stalked up and down the 
stage, full of color-coded props 
and constantly addressing the 


4. Sleater-Kinney + The Ther¬ 
mals—Crystal Ballroom, Portland 

SK’s second to last show before 
going on “hiatus,” with a near¬ 
perfect setlist. I’ve never been 
in a room so full of pure emo¬ 
tion and anticipation, with ev¬ 
eryone there (band included) 
acknowledging that something 
they loved was ending. 

5. Califone—Triple Door, Seattle 

Playing in a seated theater with 
spotless acoustics, Califone 
put on an impeccable show. 
This was the first time I’d had 
a chance to see them live, and 
all three members owned that 


P U N K P L A N E T 57 









room, filled it with their own 
technique and hypnotized ev¬ 
eryone with each song. It was 
seamless, flawless as Rutilli’s 
voice for two hours straight. 

6. Man Man + nO Things—The 
Velvet Spade, Austin 

It was a full house for this 
show, with everyone packed 
in as tight as possible to catch 
Man Man’s orgiastic carnival 
of a show. With Honus Honus 
and Pow Pow seated up front, 
they bellowed, cat-called, 
skyrocketed out of seats and 
stomped along, all followed 
by the squealy chorus of men- 
men behind them. 

7. Jamie Lidell—The Gorge, George 

This show eclipsed the one 
other time I’d seen Jamie live, 
if only for the fact that it was 
noon on a Sunday, bright out¬ 
side, and he still drove every¬ 
one into a frenzy. Wearing the 
usual white leather shoes and 
gold robe, he was able to pull 
off his usual electro-shenani¬ 
gans, recording and looping 
and layering until finally hav¬ 
ing enough to croon over—and 
when technical difficul¬ 
ties hit, he lounged onstage 
and sang accapella. Kind of 
perfect. 

8. The Black Angels + Wooden 
Wand + Why? + My Brightest 
Diamond—Annex tent, Austin 

As strange as those names 
may look together, this was 
by far the best showcase I saw at 
SXSW. Each group displayed 
such a unique sound, and all 
deserve so much respect for 
what the do—Why?’s set was 
particularly outstanding and 
drew the second biggest crowd 
that night. 

9. Animal Collective—Neumos, Seattle 
While most of the time was 
filled with the usual noodling, 
an incredible thing happened 
when they hit “We Tigers,” 
with the entire sold-out room 
giving in and shouting along 

at the top of their lungs. Same 
goes for “Grass,” with everyone 
just losing it and screaming 
together when the chorus hit, 
filling up the entire room. 


10. Mt. Eerie + Thanksgiving—Old 
Redmond Firehouse, Redmond 

Thanksgiving’s set was a short 
one, and was moved indoors 
near the end so that the crowd 
could hear it better. Adrian 
Orange shepherded everyone 
inside, then danced back¬ 
wards and pranced around 
in a circle while singing his 
songs—shouting loudly so ev¬ 
eryone could hear—and finally 
getting everyone to sing with 
him. It was a kind of audience 
appreciation and participation 
that is hard to find these days. 
He earned all of my respect for 
making that happen. 


10 BOOKS I READ IN 2006- 
OR, PHRASES YOU MAY mam 
OR MAY NOT WANT TO USE 
WHEN BREAKING UP WITH 
SOMEONE 


BY LAURA PEARSON, PUNK PLANET 
ASSOCIATE EDITOR 

1. Stranger Things Happen, 
by Kelly Link 

2. For The Time Being, 
by Annie Dillard 

3. Democracy Matters, 
bv Cornell West 

4. The Logic of With¬ 
drawal, by Anthony 
Amove (full title: Iraq: 
The Logic of With¬ 
drawal) 

5. The Good Times Are 
Killing Me, 
by Lynda Barry 

6. Indecision, 
by Benjamin Kunkel 

7. My Most Secret Desire, 
by Julie Doucet 

8. You Remind Me of Me, 
by Dan Chaon 

9. Marriage: A History, 
by Stephanie Coontz 

10. The Quitter, by Harvey Pekar & 
Dean Haspiel 


TOP 10 LPs I OWN WITH 
SKULLS ON THE FRONT 

(no order) r ~ 


BY DAVE HOFER, PUNK 
PLANET REVIEWS EDITOR 

1. Inept— Images of 
Betrayal 

2. Nuclear Assault— 
Survive 




3. Acrid— 86’ed 

4. Megadeth —Killing is My Busi¬ 
ness . . . and Business is Good 

5. Combat Wounded Veteran—/ 
Know a Girl Who Develops Crime 
Scene Photos 

6. Bonnie “Prince” Billy—/ See a 
Darkness 

7. Cannibal Corpse— The Wretched 
Spawn (LP cover is different from 
the CD version) 

8. Eyehategod— Southern Discomfort 

9. Orchid— Chaos is Me 

10. Sepultura— Beneath the Remains 


TOP 10 FULL LENGTHS 
OF 2006- 


BY DAN AGACKI, PUNK PLANET 
RECORD REVIEWER 

1. Clockcleaner— Nevermind 

Remember all those great 
records that came out on 
Touch and Go and Am Rep? 
This completely blows away 
90% of those records. Saw 'em 
three times this year and it was 
mind blowing every time. 

2. Mission Of Burma— 

The Obliterati 

ONojfON was the warm up al¬ 
bum. The Obliterati is Burma back 
at full strength. Burma proves 
that it’s possible for a band to 
still be relevant over 20 years 
down the road. 

3. Ahleuchatistas— What You Will 
This record is the great unifi¬ 
er. Prog rock dorks, math rock 
weenies, free jazz dudes and 
SST Records enthusiasts can 
all come together over a love of 
this record. 

4. Mika Miko— CYSLABF 

It took some classics to beat out 
this masterpiece on my list. 
They combine two of my favor¬ 
ite sounds; LA circa ’8l with 
late ’70s/ early ’80s female 
British post punk. 

5. Black Lips— Let It Bloom 

Amazingly catchy songs and 
perfect harmonies. They are 
quite possibly the Rolling 
Stones of our time. 

6. Government Warning— 
No Moderation 
I made bold statements 
about the greatness of 



their 7”. Luckily, they didn’t 
spend their load on the 7” 
and had an entire album of 
equally great tunes waiting in 
the wings. 

7. Scott Walker— The Drift 

I used to think that Joy Di¬ 
vision was creepy, but Scott 
Walker makes Joy Division 
sound like children’s songs. 

8. End Of A Year— Sincerely 

A year ago I wouldn’t have 
expected to be listing an al¬ 
bum that Revelation put out 
in my Top IO, but here it is, 

against all odds. 
Stop compar¬ 
ing them to Rites 
Of Spring. Swiz 
is a little more 
on target. Great 
album and great 
dudes. 

9. Protestant— Make Peace With 
The Rope You Hang From. 

The sound of a post-apocalyp¬ 
tic world. Intelligent and di¬ 
verse hardcore done properly. 

10. Hue Blanc’s Joyless Ones— Fait 
Accompli. 

The Algoma all-star band 
channels first album era Mod¬ 
ern Lovers. The multi-drum¬ 
mer attack pounds these songs 
into your brain. 


TOP 10 SONGS I LISTENED 
TO NON-STOP THAT WERE 
RELEASED IN 2006 


BY HEATHER WHINNA, FILMMAKER, 
INDEPENDENT PROMOTER 

1. Nina Nastasia—“We Never 
Talked” 

2. Danielson Famile—“Did I Step 
On Your Trumpet?” 

3. Silkworm—“Wrote A Song For 
Everyone” (written by John Fogerty) 

4. Bottomless Pit—“Human Out 
Of Me” 

5. Dolly Parton—“Travelin’ Thru” 

6. El Perro Del Mar—“God Knows 
(You Gotta Give To Get)” 

7. Joanna Newsom—“Emily” 

8. Nina Gordon—“Superstar” 

9. The Evens—“You Won’t Feel 
A Thing” 

10. Magnolia Electric Co—“Don’t 
Fade On Me” 


58 PUNK PLANET 









TOP 10 BANDS OF 2006 
THAT MOST PEOPLE WILL ■ 
PRETEND THEY NEVER h M 
LIKED THIS TIME NEXT Hi 
YEAR, IF THEY EVEN ADMIT 
TO IT NOW 


BY MATT SIBLO, PUNK PLANET 
REVIEWER 

1. Art Brut 

“We’re a sham! We’re a sham! 
Look at us, we’re a sham! ” 

2. Margot & the Nuclear So So’s 

By sheer name alone, I’d say 
they have a life expectancy of 
six months. 

3. Lily Allen 

‘Nuff said. 

4. Someone Still Loves You, 

Boris Yeltsin 

See explanation 
for # 2 . 

5. The Arctic Monkeys 

This might have al¬ 
ready happened. A 
long time ago. 

6. Sunn 0))) 

The Darkness of sludg< 
metal. 

7. The Pipettes 

I’ll admit I bought the album, 
but I calls them as I sees them. 

8. Tapes n’ Tapes 

“I am a tastemaker and I do not 
taste your tapes n’ tapes.” 

9. OK Go 

I’m pretty sure this band will 
be all out of gimmicks by next 
year but they’ve proven me 
wrong in the past. 

10. Panic! At the Disco 

You can’t blame me for taking 
one cheap shot. 



BY ART CHANTRY, DESIGN LEGEND 

1. The Inn Crowd— The Shadow 
Laughs 

2. Kit & The Outlaws— Don't Tread 


On Me 

3. Mercy— Fire Ball 

4. Chuck Bridges & The LA Hap¬ 
pening— Bad Sam 


5. M Kric— Justifiable Homicide 

6. The Balloon Farm— A Question 
Of Temperature 

7. The Converters— Dave's Place 

8. Clyde Stacy & The Nitecaps—So 
Young 

9. The Wild Ones— Come On Back 

10. The Fallen Angels— A Little 
Love From You Will Do 

(11. Beatnik George— Bobby & Billy) 

P.S.—The hard part was limiting it to 10 
(asyou can see) 


TOP 10 ALBUMS FOR 2006 


BY JOEL SCHALIT, MANAGING 
EDITOR, TIKKUN 

1. Dead Moon— 
Echoes of the 
Past (Sub Pop) 
Portland’s 
longest-run¬ 
ning power 
trio since 
the Wipers 
turns 19 
and issues 
a breathtaking 2 xCD ac¬ 
count of their entire career. 

Burial— Burial (Hyperdub) 

Equal parts Pole and Basic 
Channel, London’s Burial fi¬ 
nally puts dubstep on the full- 
length map with a gorgeous, 
reverb-laden masterpiece. 

3. Wolf Eyes/Anthony Braxton— 
Black Vomit (Victo) 

In the year’s most inspired 
pairing, the two most au cou- 
rant proponents of noise-im- 
prov testify to their genre’s 
limitless boundaries. 

4. The Congos and Friends— 
Fisherman Style (Blood and Fire) 

Using the backing track to the 
Congo’s 1977 hh “Fisherman,” 
Rhythm & Sound edit and mix 
their own history of roots reg¬ 
gae featuring a dizzying collec¬ 
tion of classic MCs. 

5. The Country Teasers— 

The Empire Strikes Back (In the Red) 

Humor and politics don’t 
always qualify as the most 
memorable musical mix, but 
when they do, this notoriously 
irreverent UK garage band to¬ 
tally nails it. 


6. Razor X Productions— Killing 
Sound (Rephlex) 

Bringing out the punk in 
dancehall, ex-Techno Animal 
member Kevin Martin tears 
the roof off with this moun¬ 
tain-moving blast of beat 
concrete. 

7. Dir Yassin— Discography (Alerta 
Antifascista) 

Collecting unreleased tracks 
and long out of print 7-inches 
on one LP, Israel’s answer to 
Crass gets its appropriately 
ironic due—on a German 
HC label. 

8. Boris— Pink (Southern Lord) 

Synthesizing doom rock, shoe- 
gazer and drone, with Pink, 
critical darlings Boris rede¬ 
fined indie rock for a whole 
new generation. 

9. The Coup— Pick a Bigger 
Weapon (Epitaph) 

Nearly six years after 
their ill-fated Party 
Music LP, Boots and 
Pam return with 
their most incisive 
and confrontation¬ 
al album yet. 

10. Crisis— Holocaust 
Hymns (Apop) 

Recorded between 1978 and 
1980, this anthology of Marx¬ 
ist post-punk by future mem¬ 
bers of Sol Invictus and Death 
in June still sounds frighten¬ 
ingly relevant. 


TOP 10“DEAD”BANDS ■ 
SENT TO ROCTOBER FOR 
REVIEW IN 2006 


BY JAKE AUSTIN, ROCTOBER 
FANZINE 

1. Dead Brothers— Wunderkam- 
mer (Voodoo Rhythm) 

2. Dead C Vain— Stupid and Eru¬ 
dite: Selected Works 1987-2005 
(Ba Da Bing!) 

3. Dead Disco (Fierce Panda) 

4. Dead Heart Bloom (Kei) 

5. Dead Hooker’s Bridge Club—The 
Hoo Dee Hoo (New Art School) 

6. Dead Man (Crusher) 

7. Dead Moon— Echoes of the Past 
(Sub Pop) 

8. Dead Next Door— Time To Fight 


(Prison Records) 

9. The Dead Science— Frost Giant 
(Absolutely Kosher) 

10. Dead To Me— Cuban Ballerina 
(Fat) 


TOP 10 RECORDS I HIM 
REVIEWED (OR SHOULD ■ 
HAVE REVIEWED) IN 2006 


BY JUSTIN VELLUCCI, PUNK 

PLANET REVIEWER 

1. Clogs— Lantern 

An almost sublime offering 
from a quartet that blurs the 
lines between classical compo¬ 
sition and post-rock experi- 
mentalism without cranking 
out songs that feel over-cooked 
or over-analyzed. The hushed 
silences from the audience 
that watched them open up 
for Rachel’s in New York City 
in 2006 said it all: this sound 
engulfs you. 

2. Bonnie 
“Prince” Billy— 
The Letting Go 
Will Oldham 
adds another 
gem to the Pal¬ 
ace stable with 
what might be his 
finest outing in 
years, a 12 -song 
set marrying the studio-re¬ 
fined precisions of Sings Great¬ 
est Palace Music with the tender 
acoustic refrains that have 
captivated listeners from Days In 
The Wake right up through Master 
and Everyone. 

3. STNNNG— Dignified Sissy 

An incredible disc from a group 
that doesn’t write songs as much 
as it plots explosions. Blister¬ 
ing, borderline-apocalyptic 
punk with lyrics as bizarrely 
literate as they are incendiary. 
You must find this record. 

4. The Lesser Birds of Paradise— 
Space Between 

Mark Janka and company fol¬ 
low up String of Bees with a disc 
that’s even more fragile and 
aching than its predecessor. If 
the whispered folk of “I Envy 
The Photons” doesn’t break 
your heart, Tim Joyce’s piano- 
laced take on “You Are My 
Sunshine” definitely will. 




P U N K P L A N E T 59 



















5. Don Caballero —World Class Lis¬ 
tening Problem 

You know the storyline: thun¬ 
derous Pittsburgh math-rock 
outfit releases critically lauded 
catalog, goes silent during 
lengthy hiatus, reunites for 
new record with only one orig¬ 
inal member. The result? An 
unexpected return to form. It’s 
no Don Caballero 2, sure, but 
it’s pretty damn good. 

6. Calexico —Garden Ruin 

I know, I know, it’s not The Black 
Light. Then again, what is? Joey 
Burns and John Convertino 
crank up the radio-readiness on 
their desert rock and Latin-tinged 
acoustic ballads and the out¬ 
come still captivates you. 

7. Tris McCall & The New Jack 
Trippers —Tm Assuming You're 
All In Bands 

Synth-pop as satire and so¬ 
cial commentary. Jersey na¬ 
tive Tris McCall toys with a 
rougher-around-the-edges 
live sound to punch holes in 
Brooklyn’s hipster scene. If 
you swear this record’s not about 
you, it just might be. 

8. Jack Endino —Permanent Fatal 
Error 

This Skin Yard alumnus/Se¬ 
attle studio guru’s first solo 
outing in years is all the proof 
you’ll need that the Pacific 
Northwest still understands the 
vitality of grungy guitars and 
distortion-drenched choruses. 

9. The Sea, Like Lead—S/T EP 

A quietly released EP that 
could be one of the year’s bet¬ 
ter debuts: a three-song demo 
whose long-form post-rock ex¬ 
ercises call to mind early June 
of 44 an d the tangled erup¬ 
tions of A Minor Forest. 

10. The Vanities —Coma Kiss 
A local band comes into its 
own. After a few records and a 
few years, this studio-polished 
quartet—part At The Drive In, 
part Mr. Bungle, part Nir¬ 
vana-sounds like it’s teetering 
on the big time. Catch them 
before the cover price at the 
door climbs skyward along 
with them. 


TOP 10 BOOKS I READ IN 
2006 (REGARDLESS OF ■ 
THEIR RELEASE DATE) J 


BY HEATHER WHINNA, FILMMAKER, 
INDEPENDENT PROMOTER 

1. Call Me Crazy, by Anne Heche 
(amazing on CD) 

2. Persepolis, Persepolis 2, Em¬ 
broideries, by Marjane Satrapi 

3. Silent Twins, by Marjorie Wallace 

4. Comfort and Critique, 
by Peter Sotos 

5. Angry Little Girl series, 
by Lela Lee 

6. The Encyclopedia Of Unbelief, 
edited by Gordon Stein 

7. Bad Date, by Trevor Greene 


BY KYLE RYAN, PUNK PLANET 
CONTRIBUTOR, EDITOR FOR THE 
ONION AV CLUB. 

10. “I think Mike’s talking shit 
about us, but I can’t tell.” [Laughs.] 
—Tim Mcllrath of Rise Against 
backstage at Warped Tour, wait¬ 
ing for NOFX to finish so his 
band could start. Parc Jean 
Drapeau, Montreal, 8/13/06 

9. “Ben Gibbard makes cute hipster 
girls pathetic" 

—Guy’s homemade T-shirt at 
Lollapalooza. Grant Park, Chi¬ 
cago, 8/4/06 

8. “Janet! I love you! AAAAAAAAH- 
HHHHHHHH! All night! All night!” 

—Guy during Sleater-Kinney’s 
set at Lollapalooza. Grant 
Park, Chicago, 8/4/06 

7. “It’s a little known fact that our 
time signatures are more fucked up 
than Coheed & Cambria’s. So if you 
want to clap along, good fucking 
luck to you.” 

—Carl Newman of the New 
Pornographers at Lollapalooza. 
Grant Park, Chicago, 8/5/06 


6. “I have a bit of a cameltoe go¬ 
ing on right now. Just don’t take a 
picture.” 

—Neko Case. Antone’s, Austin, 
3/18/06 

5. “That didn’t just happen, did it?! 

I can’t believe that just happened!” 
—Random kid after Lifetime 
played. Emo’s, Austin, 3/17/06 

4. “That’s what South By South¬ 
west is all about: moving units, 
making connections. And eyeliner.” 
—Dan Yemin of Paint It Black. 
Emo’s, Austin, 3/18/06 

3. Drunk guy: “Dude, when I flew 
to Baltimore, [Neko Case] was in 
American Way magazine! You know 
what that means, don't you? It’s 
all over!” 

[Pause.] 

His friend: [Laughs.] “I’m driving 
you home.” 

—Exchange during Neko Case 
set. Antone’s, Austin, 3/18/06 

2. “I think the qualities that make 
him an asshole also make him a 
good lead singer.” 

—Two band dudes discuss¬ 
ing their jerky vocalist during 
lunch. Schlotzsky’s, Austin, 

3/17/06 

1. “I know what you're thinking: 
What was the big deal? It was a lot 
cooler in the ’80s.” 

—Steve Albini during Big 
Black’s set at the Touch & Go 
25th anniversary festival. 
Hideout, Chicago, 9/9/06 


TOP 10 SONGS I LISTENED ■ 
TO NON-STOP IN 2006 THAT 
WERE NOT RELEASED IN mJ 


BY HEATHER WHINNA, FILMMAKER, 
INDEPENDENT PROMOTER 

1. Don Heffington—“Don’t Fade 
On Me” 

2. Harry Nilsson—“Think About 
Your Troubles” 

3. Randy Newman—“Political 
Science” 

4. Jimmy Cliff—“Many Rivers To 
Cross” 

5. Jill Sobule—“Don’t Let Us Get 
Sick” (written by Warren Zevon) 

6. Robbie Fulks—“Georgia Hard” 

7. Willie Nelson & Johnny Cash— 
“Always On My Mind” (live) 


8. John Lennon—“God” (from the 
Anthology set) 

9. The Langley Schools Music Proj¬ 
ect—“Desperado” 

10. Leslie Gore—“You Don’t Own Me” 


TOP 10 COMIC BOOKS I’VE 
ACQUIRED IN THE LAST h 
YEAR THAT I WISH I HAD ■ 
TIME TO READ 


BY BRETT WARNOCK, TOP SHELF 
COMIX 

1. Buddha Vol. 8, by Tezuka. Pub¬ 
lished by Vertical. 

(Actually, haven’t read ANY of 
them yet.) 

2. Marvel Zombies, by Robert Kirk- 
man and Sean Phillips. Published 
by Marvel. 

3. Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel. 
Published by Houghton Mifflin. 

4. Sloth, by Gilbert Hernandez. 
Published by Vertigo / DC. 

5. Wimbledon 
Green, by Seth. 
Published by 
Drawn & 
Quarterly. 

6. Love Fights, 
by Andi Wat¬ 
son. Published 
by Oni Press. 

7. The Surrogates, by Robert Ven- 
ditti and Brett Weldele. Published 
by ME!!! 

8. Night Fisher, by R. Kikuo John¬ 
son. Published by Fantagraphics. 

9. The Dark Horse Book of the 
Dead, edited by Scott Allie. 
Published by Dark Horse. 

10. Vampire Loves, by Joann Star. 
Published by First Second. 


TOP 10 LEAST 
COMFORTABLE CHIC -1 
A-GO-GO RAT PUPPET 
INTERVIEWS OF 2006 


BY JAKE AUSTIN, ROCTOBER 
FANZINE 

1. Lady Sovereign 

Walked away before interview. 

2. The Streets 

Walked away one second into 
interview. 

3. David Thomas of Pere Ubu 

Insulted the puppet for his 
poor craftsmanship. 

4. Animal Collective 


8. Female Sexual 
Abuse Of Children, 
edited by Michelle 
Elliott 

9. Exuberance: The 
Passion for Life , 

by Kay Redfield 
Jamison 

10. Singing Songs, 
by Meg Tilly 


TOP 10 THINGS I 
OVERHEARD AT MUSIC 
FUNCTIONS THIS YEAR 




60 PUNK PLANET 









In their defense, maybe they 
were just being really serious. 

5. Gil Manteras’ Party Dream 

Was disappointed with Lil’ 
Ratso’s poor research skills. 

6. Lorna Logic 

Stood off camera and laughed 
at the rest of the Germs during 
their interview. 

7. CSS 

Brazilian dance rockers may or 
may not have been comfortable, 
but they were definitely drunk. 

8. One of the kids from the Paul 
Green School of Rock 

Too cool for puppets. 

9. Budget Girls 

Were actually quite comfortable, 
but made Ratso uncomfortable 
with their sexy innuendo. 


10. Perry Farrell 

Had security remove the pup¬ 
pet, puppeteer, and cameraman 
during a pleasant interview with 
Patti Smith at Lollapalooza. 


TOP 10 MOST LISTENED 
TO SONGS OF 2006, mm 
ACCORDING TO MY wM 

computer 


BY PAUL M DAVIS, PUNK PLANET 
CONTRIBUTOR AND VOLUNTEER 

1. Traditional—’’Bugger Off” 

2. Bob Seger—’’Turn The Page” 

3. Merle Haggard—’’Okie From 
Muskogee” 

4. Waylon Jennings and Willie 
Nelson—”1 Can Get Off On You” 


5. Killdozer—’’Free Love in 
Amsterdam” 

6. Old Crow Medicine Show—”1 
Hear Them All” 

7. Bonnie “Prince” Billie—’’Igni¬ 
tion” (R. Kelly Cover) 

8. The Thermals—’’Returning To 
the Fold” 

9. Calexico—’’All Systems Red” 

10. The Devil Makes Three— 
’’Judgment Day” 


TOP 10 CONCERTS I MISSED 
IN 2006, GODDAMMIT hhh 


BY JON RESH, DESIGNER/WRITER 

1. TV On The Radio 

I’ve managed to miss seeing 
this band live four times now, 
which should indicate just how 
much I suck as a human being. 

2. Say Hi to Your Mom 

I was cranky and 
tired, it was rainy 
and cold out¬ 
side, and I had 
just rented Spike 
Lee’s Inside Man. 

So I stayed home 
and watched the 
movie. It was quite 
entertaining. 

3. Bad Brains at 
CBGB’s 

I had no clue this 
was going on for 
CBGB’s closing 
festivities. Had I 
known I probably 
would’ve hopped a 
ride to NYG for it, 
even if HR & Co. 
are (in all probability) with¬ 
ered old coots by now. 

4. Mucca Pazza 

Took a nap beforehand. Woke 
up at four the next morning. 
Gaaaaah. 

5. Asobi Seksu 

Mom was in town. She ex¬ 
pressed no interest in standing 
before a deafening shoegazer 
roar topped with frosty Japa¬ 
nese female vocals. Our loss. 

6. Arcwelder 

At the Touch & Go/Hideout 
fest, they played first—i.e., 
noon—on the Sunday after 
two full days of rock. It was 


a gray and cold noon show, 
and all of us were beat to shit 
from the previous 36 hours. 

We got down there by 3 pm, 
wholly missing Arcwelder’s 
set, though in hindsight we re¬ 
ally should’ve made the effort. 
Sorry guys. 

7. Fred Anderson & Hamid Drake 

Two of the best and most in¬ 
novative musicians in the na¬ 
tion happen to live in my town 
(Chicago), but I’m rarely alert¬ 
ed to their collaborative per¬ 
formances. And whenever they 
do play together, invariably I’m 
on deadline. Crap. 

8. Iron & Wine 

Couldn’t stomach the Lol¬ 
lapalooza ticket price. Plus I’d 
rather see Mr. Beam in a more 
intimate setting—like our laun¬ 
dry room. How about it, Sam? 

9. Explosions in the Sky. 

This would’ve necessitat¬ 
ed a trip to Austin, which I 
would’ve been up for . . . ex¬ 
cept I didn’t have the cash or a 
car or airline credit or a place 
to stay or time to go. (That, of 
course, wouldn’t have stopped 
me when I was 19.) 

10. The Raveonettes. 

Stayed home for any myriad of 
lame reasons; can’t remember 
which one. A good Simpsons was 
on or something. 


10 BOOKS THAT TRULY WM 
INSPIRED ME THIS YEAR. I 
SOME JUST HAVE PHOTOS 
OR ART, OTHERS HAVE ■■ 

WORDS 


BY CHRISSY PIPER, PHOTOGRAPHER 

1. Confederates in the Attic, 
by Tony Horwitz 

2. Ireland: A Terrible Beauty, 
by Jill and Leon Uris 

3. American Pictures, 
by Jacob Holdt 

An amazing photographer and 
his story 

4. Aiz/Vi 1930-38, by John Heartfield 

Everyone should know this 
guy’s art, especially with our 
current president, it’s all so 
relevant 

5. Facts Of Winter, by Paul Poissel 


and Paul La Farge 

6. When I Was Five I Killed Myself, 
by Howard Buten 

My Favorite Book, gets me 
every time I read it... really 
makes one think of children in 
a different light. 

7. The Feast Of Love, 
by Charles Baxter 

8. Hundred And One Days, 
by Asne Seierstad 

One dedicated woman! 

9. An Anthropologist On Mars, 
by Oliver Sacks 

10. Risk Of An Early Spring, 
by Bertrand Fleuret 


TOP 10 BANDS OF 2006 Hi 
THAT ARE REALLY, REALLY 
INTO WOLVES 


BY MICHAEL COLEMAN, 

FOUNDATION PROJECTS 

1. Wolfmother 

2. Wolfmother 

3. Wolfmother 

4. Wolfmother 

5. Wolfmother 

They get five spots on the list 
because they’re also really, re¬ 
ally into themselves. 

6. Wolf Parade 

7. Wolf Eyes 

8. Sea Wolf 

9. Guitar Wolf 

10. Steppenwolf 

OK, no real buzz for Step¬ 
penwolf in 2006, but they’re 
my prediction for 2007’s 
shouldn’t-really-have-both- 
ered-to-make-a-come-back- 
but-are-pissed-about-not- 
riding-the-wolf-bandwagon- 
in-2006 band. 




PUNK PLANET 61 







10 ZINES FOUND IN 2006 


BY R JOHN XERXES, 

LOVE BUNNI PRESS 

Inspiration and motivation have be¬ 
come increasingly rare commodities in 
a scene that has become rife with calls- 
for-content and disappearing acts that 
remind one of a spiritualist heckled by 
a distraught mommy-missing Houdini. 
Of course, the line community has not 
succumbed to the pratfallpranksterism 
of the underground music scene — mean¬ 
ing that there are hardly the sad number 
of zines out there with a sole purpose of 
pandering to the majors, creating prod¬ 
uct instead of expression, /jnedom has 
lost, though, to the chilling warmth of 
My Space invites and other such damn 
social networking immediacies. The 
electronic eye has drained enough of the 
intimacy away from the graceful tide 
of slow-motion readership. Anyway, 
there were some things that came across 
my desk this lastyear that provoked, 
enthralled and prodded me toward my 
own productions—and that is what its all 
about, I think. 



1. R Lee’s Barrelhouse and Under¬ 
world Crawl (dollar bills or trades to 
P.O. Box 1421 Oshkosh, Wl 54903) 

R Lee is, quite frankly, the best 
writer you are likely to read. 
Barrelhouse is less a comic book 
and more a beautifully illus¬ 
trated picture book for adults. 
Each issue is a self-contained 
tale, possibly autobiographical 
confessions, centered around 
a mounting pile of shit and 
failure. Underworld Crawl con¬ 
tinues to tap the same bruised 
vein of hope, a hope unalter¬ 
ably torn asunder by the stupid 
brutality of normal everyday 
banality. While R Lee seems to 
be boiling his work in familiar, 
uninteresting pots, do not be 
dissuaded. His narrative voice 
is one of stripped observation, 
acutely incensed to descrip¬ 
tive tone, event, and location. 


His writing is conversational 
without the insufferable dope- 
nod boredom droning on in 
the background as one tries 
to pass out. R Lee’s writing is 
controlled, subtle, and power¬ 
ful. His observations are quick 
cutting. His talent soars as he 
painfully refashions a despised 
population, unsympatheti¬ 
cally attributing to them all the 
unanticipated pathos and in¬ 
explicable comradery inherent 
in all great works of prose. R 
Lee is a rare find in the under¬ 
ground; he’s a true “author” 
with all the rights and privi¬ 
leges afforded to the position. 

2. Paper Kitty (contact e-mail: 
paperkitty@gmail.com) 

Frankly, I am totally smit¬ 
ten with this wonderful little 
zine. The collaboration of 
cousins, Viet and Jackie, this 
zine is brilliantly designed 
and incredibly executed. On 
the cover is a brown lunch 
bag hand puppet whose arms 
pop-up off the surface, who’s 
breast plate opens for easy bat¬ 
tery replacements, and who’s 
mouth swings open to reveal 
the sleepy bear operator cosily 
operating the giant robot. The 
beauty, detail, and painstaking 
construction of the front cover 
informs the entire project. 
Each page explodes with a bril¬ 
liant intricacy of hand written 
text interrupted by big-headed 
cuteness. The cartoon crea¬ 
tures dance among the text 
with a gleeful, unabashed play¬ 
fulness that is intoxicating. 

The sustained quality of the 
illustrations and page design, 
done by Viet, is wholly unex¬ 
pected and unprecedented in 
a photocopied creation. The 
zine is also fun to read. There 
are delightful interviews with 
friends and artists, fully il¬ 
lustrated as cartoons. And 
probably my favorite piece of 
zine invention right now, “I 
Met Him When He Was 5 »” a 
cute little narrative by a child’s 
stuffed bear. Paper Kitty is rare 
and special zine because it is a 
zine of pure, infectious, un¬ 
adulterated joy. 



3. Brains (http://brains.zine. 
googlepages.com/home) 

Brains basically combines two 
great genres that have always 
stood side by side in an unholy 
trash culture alliance—punk 
rock and zombies! These two 
have stood together since be¬ 
fore The Damned went all 
horrorgoth on us. Skulls and 
decaying corpses were the 
high art, the defining sym¬ 
bols, in the employ of almost 
all punk bands until the ad¬ 
vent of straightedge (or when 
Pushead started designing 
Metallica albums, who can say 
for sure). But this zine picks 
up where the grand tradition 
of the Misfits, 45 Grave, and 
Return of the Living Dead all 
slouched off. Both issues, so 
far, straddle the kitsch abyss 
of bad punk and bad hor¬ 
ror with a Russian gymnast’s 
unnatural agility. Infusing 
the stories with an intimate 
knowledge of punk’s history 
and the undead’s mythologies, 
the myriad genres and absurd 
subtitles of each are exploited 
for maximum effect. Utilizing 
humor to defuse any poten¬ 
tial awfulness, these stories are 
clever and inventive and genu¬ 
inely enjoyable to read. Un¬ 
derground splatter horror and 
punk fiction have notoriously 
been humiliating experiences, 
but Jesse & Ryan great writers, 
who’s obvious talent has been 
focused on an inspired proj¬ 
ect. The fun they had in mak¬ 
ing these zines is translated to 
the reader guaranteeing a great 
time for all. 

4. Fifth Grade (stamps/trade Love 
Bunni Press, 2622 Princeton Cleve 
Hts., OH 44118) 

While Ben Frazier was design¬ 
ing the interior graphics for the 
short story collection Blister Packs, 


he stumbled over a computer 
generated distorting technique 
that allowed him to manipulate 
photographs. The result of this 
procedure rendered the images 
grotesquely misshapen and hu¬ 
morously recognizable. A per¬ 
fect opportunity presented itself 
when he remembered a zine 
idea he kicked around based on 
a ragtag grade school yearbook. 
That strangely inconsequential 
document survived the terrors 
of the years gouging past. A sad 
monument to the last grade 
where one can still be a child- 
before the full-blown rage of 
hormones and the concealing 
smear of underarm deodor¬ 
ant. So he tinkered and tricked 
out the little square portraits, 
then accented the images with 
cramped up memories and no 
punches pulled observations. 
The result of his handiwork is 
simultaneously saccharin re¬ 
flections and wistful annoyance, 
the true stuff of unfettered 
memories. Fifth Grade stands at 
the rusty banister of a park¬ 
ing lot precipice frowning like 
a gassy hall monitor, dreading 
the lunch bell. The spectacle is 
alien while the participants fa¬ 
miliar. It’s that good. 

5. Razorcake (P0 Box 42129 LA, 

CA 90042) 

Todd and the gang have always 
produced Razorcake from that 
sticker-strewn, messy attic 
bedroom where piles of great 
punk rock records manage to 
block out the sun. The zine has 
always felt like a long conver¬ 
sation with that one kid in the 
scene who had the most awe¬ 
some record collection. That 
kid who made weekly treks 
across the filthy city, progres¬ 
sively and ritualistically, hit¬ 
ting every indie record store. 
That kid would buy vinyl by 
the pound, especially by bands 
with the most fucked-up logos 
and cover art. That kid who 
was the conduit through which 
great and obscure bands be¬ 
came celebrated in local scenes 
across the country. I always 
liked that kid because he would 
always welcome you into his 


62 PUNK PLANET 










lair, to sit for hours listen¬ 
ing and talking and enthusing 
about the bands he was dubbing 
for you. Razorcake is that kid and 
as the staff grows and the mag¬ 
azine expands, the love that 
is shared through its pages is 
real and it is deep. And maga¬ 
zines like it are what keeps this 
underground shitfest fun and 
worthwhile. Thank the fucking 
gods for Razorcakel 

6. What I Did 
On My Summer 
Vacation ($20 
to Christoph 
Meyer PO Box 
106, Danville, 
OH 43014) 

The first pa¬ 
perback book 
produced by 
Ye Olde Printe Shoppe. YOPS 
promises to become one of the 
best DIY presses in the his¬ 
tory of DIY presses mainly 
because of the dedication of its 
founder—Christoph Meyer. 

You might recognize him as 
the antiquarian force behind 
28 Pages Lovingly Bound with Twine. 

If you have not actually met 
him at a zinefest. sitting at his 
table carefully knotting twine, 
then surely you have read his 
warm and affectionate zines. 

His zine has long been a fa¬ 
vorite and I proudly call him a 
friend, so imagine my surprise 
and joy when I discovered this 
magnificent paperback book in 
my pile of mail. This charm¬ 
ing tale of the Meyer’s family 
excusion from Cleveland to 
Portland to attend the 2005 
zine symposium is so affably 
written that one whips through 
the 162 pages without noticing 
the time. But this will be no 
surprise to fans of Christoph’s 
honed storytelling ability. Nor 
will the reader familiar with 28 
Pages ... be surprised to discover 
handmade gems of punched 
paper, photographs, and hand 
stamped graphics littering and 
punctuating the book. What I Did 
on My Summer Vacation is complete¬ 
ly handmade—collated, cut, and 
bound entirely by Christoph— 
and the resulting book is unlike 


any other book you are likely to 
have seen outside a museum. It 
is an amazing artefact, an im¬ 
pressive testament, to the DIY 
aesthetic and should be added 
to every collection. 

7. Wild Style On The Stone Age & 
More X Out More Index ($1. Ale¬ 
jandro de Acosta, 5002 Baker St. 
Austin TX 78721) 

Anathemas and admirations 
penned by the brilliant Ale¬ 
jandro de Acosta. Focusing on 
the struggles for autonomy, 
these observations offer poten¬ 
tial pin pricks into the social 
fabric that shrouds philoso¬ 
phy in constrictive academic 
pleather jumpsuits. Alejando’s 
notes and prose poems are 
wonderful. The sparse insights 
fuse an anarcho-marxism to 
the livable surface of everyday 
tedium. The result is an explo¬ 
sive event that tears open new 
avenues for general thought 
and locates associations/ 
friendships as sites for revolu¬ 
tionary struggle and potential 
liberation. The pattern offered 
is experimental art and gener¬ 
osity, essential tools in staving 
off tyranny. These zines are 
important transmissions from 
the front lines of everyday life. 
Highly accessible, readable, 
and recommended. 

8. A Book Of Tiny Paintings & 
Rough Sketches ($12 through 
http://www.ericdavison.com) 

A skinny, but breathtakingly 
beautiful, collection of color 
plates and black and white 
sketch pad pages, Eric’s art 
book is really well produced. 
Basically, a collection of Eric’s 
watercolor portraitures of in¬ 
ventively designed monsters 
and cartoonish man-on-the- 
street caricatures. While some 
influences occasionally poke 
through the soft palate and 
strong line of Eric’s paint¬ 
ings, what is clear is that he 
is developing an exactingly 
defined visual style. Whether 
straightforward illustration or 
cluttered assemblage of over¬ 
lapping figures competing for 
focus or a montage of heads 
tightly floating in rows across 



the page, the draftsmanship is 
clear, his line is precise, and 
the clarity of the abstraction 
is visually striking. Meaning 
that this guy can draw interest¬ 
ing creatures and people and 
events that accentuate a miss¬ 
ing narrative, which is more 
than many established artists 
can claim to achieve. The book 
is a bit pricey, but well worth 
it. Check out his website for 
prints, buttons and additional 
images of his work. 





9. 398 The Spi¬ 
der Issue (contact 
myspace.com/ 
zine398) 

Elizabeth JMW’s 

9 a zine-making 

\ machine crank- 
,< ing out superb 

issue after superb 
issue of 298 and 
editing Perzines (a 
collection of writ¬ 
ing culled from 
other zines). This issue of 
298 contains one of the best 
pieces of zine writing ever 
done about why one makes a 
zine in the first place. The 
piece is a short metaphorical 
story about a girl, Cornelia, 
who rescues a very wet spider, 
Timothy, from the rain. After 
that stormy night, Cornelia 
begins finding little trea¬ 
sures around her bedroom. 
Tiny booklets for her to look 
at and read. Some of these are 
delightful objects while others 
are sad confessions of loneli¬ 
ness. After amassing quite a 
collection, Thomas encour¬ 
ages Cornelia to make one 
of her own. When she does, 
that crafty little spider sug¬ 
gests she set it free find a new 
home where someone else 
might delight in it. The story 
is a well-written fable with an 
affable metaphorical conceit 
that pulls off the complicated 
task of working itself out on 
several levels of meaning. Un¬ 
til I read Elizabeth’s story, I 
understood without compre¬ 
hending the potential whim¬ 
sical strangeness of zine mak¬ 
ing. I really admire this little 


zine and everything Elizabeth 
has been able to set free into 
the cool night air. 

10. TheTradingNetwork.Org (http:// 
www.thetradingnetwork.org/) 

The sole website on this list is 
a marvelous idea which I hope 
ratchets up its social network¬ 
ing potential. Basically, the- 
tradingnetwork.org is a group 
of artists, crafty folks, and zine 
makers who are committed to 
trading their work with and 
for other people’s work. In the 
halcyon days of old, pre-In¬ 
ternet, when Gunderloy still 
pecked out the tiny print of 
the encyclopedic Factsheet Five, 
there were invisible networks 
tying the bartering community 
together. Contacts that alerted 
contacts to other contacts and 
the whole mail art/zine scene 
escalated in kind. The example 
was established by Factsheet Five's 
absurd generosity—its bulg¬ 
ing 200+ pages were traded 
to all comers and was offered 
free to prisoners. Those of us 
struggling to fill twelve quar¬ 
ter sized pages felt humbled 
by the sheer dedicated altru¬ 
ism of Gunderloy’s massive 
project. Those days, though, 
have slowly faded into a more 
commercialized underground, 
a landscape where “free” is a 
suspect term and trades are 
more often turned down by an 
upturned nose. So one might 
imagine the excitement I felt 
when stumbling over this web¬ 
site dedicating itself to the old 
ways! I signed up immedi¬ 
ately. Within a fortnight, I had 
bundles of zines ready to post 
to their new homes. Lately, 
this site has been slightly quiet, 
something I hope some of you 
can rectify. After all the best 
audience you can hope to find 
is one that wants to share with 
you, the author. This website is 
a great place to start. 

While there were many more moments 
where what I held in my hands inspired 
moments of joy, these 10 zines resonate, 
for from their presence in my life, better 
things now exist. I hope they bringyou 
the same sort of pleasure. 


P U N K P L A N E T 63 










TOP 10 PEOPLE WHO 
WOULD MAKE A BETTER ■ 
PRESIDENT THAN MR. BUSH, 
BUT CAN’T (AND REASONS | 
THEREFORE) 


BY FRANK MAUCERI, SMOG VEIL 
RECORDS 

1. Pat Paulsen (funnier, but dead) 

2. Saul Alinsky (more proactive, 
but dead) 

3. Rosa Parks (less fearful, but dead) 

4. Rob Tyner (better singer, but dead) 

5. Euell Gibbons (healthier, but dead) 

6. Lenny Bruce (larger vocabulary, 
but dead) 

7. Marla Ruzicka (more honest, 
but dead) 

8. Rod Serling (tells a better story, 
but dead) 

9. Abbie Hoffman (more creative, 
but dead) 

10. Nardwuar (looks great in plaid, 
Canadian) 


10 TOP HEADLINES OF 2006 
PAIRED WITH QUOTES hJ 
FROM SAWYER, OF THE 
HIT TV SHOW LOST , THAT ■ 
SOUND AN AWFUL LOT LIKE 
THINGS GEORGE W BUSH md 
WOULD SAY 


BY LAURA PEARSON, PUNK PLANET 
ASSOCIATE EDITOR 

1. House Ethics Committee Mem¬ 
ber Steps Down 

“So how does it feel? Taking my 
place at the top of everyone’s 
most hated list. Sucks, don’t it?” 

2. Vice President Shoots Friend 
During Hunting Expedition 

“Don’t look at me. I was just 
here pushing the button.” 

3. Bush Proposes Legislation to Au¬ 
thorize the Use of Military Tribunals 

“Sorry, I’m fresh out of sweet 
forgiveness.” 

4. Tom DeLay Leaves Congress 

“Why are you lookin’ at me?” 

5. Bin Laden Warns U.S. of al- 
Qaeda’s Plans 

“If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got 
some revenge to tend to.” 

6. Scientists Find Evidence of Wa¬ 
ter on a Saturn Moon 

“I take comfort knowin’ some 
day, this is all gonna be a real 
nice shopping complex. Maybe 
even an auto mall.” 

7. Bush Tours New Orleans, Prom¬ 


ises Change 

“You got a Band-Aid?” 

8. Sectarian Violence Continues 
in Iraq 

“I’m guessing everybody’s going 
to want to play cowboys and Indi¬ 
ans. And once those guns are out 
and about, something tells me 
they ain’t never going back in.” 

9. President Bush Turns 60 

“Do I get a lollipop?” 

10. North Korea Performs Nuclear 
Weapon Test 

“Well, well. Look at who’s got a 
secret stash . . . Seeing as I got 
all the guns, I do get to ask why.” 


TOP 10 POLITICAL 
“MOVEMENTS/MOMENTS” I 
THAT HAPPENED AND MADE 
ME THROW-UP IN 2006 


BY HEATHER WHINNA, FILMMAKER, 
INDEPENDENT PROMOTER 

1. Repeal of Marriage Licenses for 
Same-Sex Couples. 

2. The continued existence of Es- 
trojam & LadyFest (the ghettoiza- 
tion of woman musicians = dumb 
idea, duh). 

3. The blind acceptance of the 
made-up term “partial-birth abor¬ 
tion” which is actually called a D&E. 

4. States passing laws to make the 
murder of a pregnant woman con¬ 
sidered a double homicide. 

5. Jessica Hopper vs. “The Emo 
Scene” (the anti-feminist, victim 
mentality) & ummm although she re¬ 
sents being called a journalist (which 
she wrote in her journal) the paid 
journalist/“punk-rock publicist” calls 
Stephin Merritt a racist for publicly 
announcing he doesn’t like hip-hop. 

6. The upcoming ban on all abor¬ 
tions in the state of South Dakota, 
yet state Senator quipped . . . 

7. “South Dakota Senator Bill Napo¬ 
li, one of the leading backers of the 
ban, said on PBS that “brutalized 
and raped” religious virgins were the 
only ones deserving of legal abor¬ 
tions, and “there’s no time like the 
present” for South Dakota to lead 
states in criminalizing abortion.” 

8. The large & growing Internation¬ 
al Christian “Missionary” movement 
disguised as feeding the poor. 

9. Suicide Girls/Girls Gone Wild 
“Neo-Sexual Empowerment” move¬ 


ment (empowerment= showing off 
my tits & ass-tattoo). 

10. The conviction of IL Republican 
Governor George Ryan for taking 
money in the the city of Chicago 
(seriously?) after he placed a mora¬ 
torium on the death penalty. 

(11. Liberals abandoning the word 
Liberal.) 


TOP 10 THINGS I PREDICTED 
GEORGE W BUSH 
WOULD DO IN 2006 BUT ■ 
THANKFULLY DIDN’T 


BY JON RESH, DESIGNER/WRITER 

1. Crown himself King of America. 

2. Rename New York City to Snob- 
bypornocommietown. 

3. Assassinate Stephen Colbert. 

4. Allow standardized full cavity 
searches at airport check-ins. (Ex¬ 
cept for registered Republicans.) 

5. Check every newborn in the 
United States, Afghanistan, and 
Iraq for 666 birthmark. 

6. Declare war on Massachusetts. 

7. Use executive privilege to force 
“strategery” into the Merriam- 
Webster Dictionary. 

8. Designate all registered Demo¬ 
crats as enemy combatants. 

9. Pass a law allowing the US to 
legally detain anyone without justifi¬ 
able cause for an indefinite amount 
of time, torture them in detainment, 
give them little legal representation, 
and revoke their right to protest the 
treatment under the Geneva Conven¬ 
tion. (Oh wait, silly me—he did that.) 

10. Audit Punk Planet. 


TOP 10 REASONS WHY THE 
MILITARY COMMISSIONS mJ 
ACT OF 2006 IS AMONG THE 
WORST LAWS PASSED IN H 
AMERICAN HISTORY ■■■■ 


BY JON RESH, DESIGNER/WRITER 

1. It allows enemy combatants to 
be held indefinitely without trial or 
access to an attorney. A lawyer is 
assigned only once the detainee 
stands trial. 

2. It allows wide leeway for coercive 
practices—i.e., “soft torture”—to be 
used for interrogation techniques. 
Specific limits are vague. Practices 
used in Soviet gulags and brutal dicta 
torships could be deemed acceptable. 

3. It allows coerced and hearsay 
evidence if a judge determines it 


to be reliable. Coerced evidence is 
information obtained through force 
or extreme persuasion. Hearsay evi¬ 
dence is based on what someone 
has told a witness, not something 
the witnesses have seen or heard 
for themselves. Never in US history 
has such evidence been allowable. 

4. It allows defendants to see only 
some—but not necessarily all—of 
the evidence against them. It also 
permits the exclusion of a defendant 
from a trial if classified evidence is 
being presented. A defendant can 
thus be prosecuted for evidence 
they never see or know. (This would 
never be admissible in an American 
court of law, nor would we allow it 

if an American soldier was on trial 
in a court elsewhere.) 

5. It bans suspects from going to 
court to challenge the constitutional¬ 
ity of their confinement, and bans 
defendants from invoking the Gene¬ 
va Conventions as a source of rights. 

6. It removes a suspect’s right to 
challenge his detention in court. It 
unjustly blocks courts from hear¬ 
ing petitions against capture and 
imprisonment of detainees, though 
they’re held without charge. 

7. It expands the definition of an 
“unlawful enemy combatant,” in¬ 
cluding anyone who offers “mate¬ 
rial support” to someone engaged 
in hostilities against the US Such 
an “accomplice” can be held indefi¬ 
nitely in military detention, regard¬ 
less of whether he or she actually 
engaged in hostilities. 

8. It suspends the writ of habeas 
corpus (i.e., the basic right of an 
individual to know why he or she is 
being apprehended and detained) 
for individuals designated enemy 
combatants against the US. (Ha¬ 
beas corpus was established in the 
17th century and is a cornerstone 
of all democracies. It has arguably 
never been suspended to this de¬ 
gree in American history.) 

9. Evidence obtained can be ad¬ 
mitted in court even if it had been 
gathered without a search warrant. 

10. No specifics of due process have 
been stated for this policy. As the 
law stands now, a person—Ameri¬ 
can citizen or otherwise—labeled 
“enemy combatant” can, in theory, 
be whisked away without cause and 
never heard from again, legally. 


64 PUNK PLANET 
























TOP 10 CHAIN FOOD 
ABOMINATIONS OF 2006 
(THAT I SECRETLY WANT 
TO TRY) 


BY ARI CHARNEY, PUNK PLANET 

REVIEWER 

1. Taco Bell's Crunchwrap Supreme 

It’s too bad Taco Bell wast¬ 
ed a brilliant portmanteau 
like “Cruncheweesy” on the 
Cheesy Gordita Crunch, as the 
Crunchwrap Supreme is far 
more deserving of such a ma¬ 
jestic designation. 

2. Krispy Kreme’s Key Lime Pie 
Donut 

This donut atrocity is filled 
with key lime custard and 
topped with cream cheese 
frosting and graham cracker 
crunch. The last time I was 
this grossed out by a donut was 
during break in second grade 
when the teacher brought in a 
donut sampler and I mistaken¬ 
ly bit into a Boston Creme. 

3. White Castle’s Chicken Rings 
While I may blanch at the 
thought of a burger with five 
holes, there’s something about 
ring-shaped chicken pieces 
that just seems so right. 

Even the hapless ad 
agency tasked with 
writing the copy for 
White Castle’s website 
threw in the marketing- 
speak towel when they got 

to this entry. In describ¬ 
ing the chicken rings, they 
quip, “(They’re) so perfect 
in fact, that you’ll wonder 
how we make such precise 
circles. Very flexible chickens, 
people.’’ These chicken rings 
are also a handy side order 
to have around in case you’re 
thinking of proposing to your 
girl, or, even better, every girl 
in the White Castle park¬ 
ing lot. 

4. Hardee’s Philly Cheesesteak 
Thickburger 

Ever since the introduction of 
their Monster Thickburger was 
rewarded with thousands of 
media impressions, Hardee’s 
has been staking out its niche 
in the crowded fast food mar¬ 
ket as the fast food chain for 
unapologetic gluttons. Indeed, 


the press release that an¬ 
nounced the Philly Chees¬ 
esteak Thickburger crowed, 
“Meat as a Condiment Goes to 
the Next Level . . .” And yes, it 
is, in fact, a hamburger topped 
with a cheesesteak. 

5. IHOP’s Cinnamon Swirl French 
Toast 

Of all the items on this list, 
this one somehow seems the 
most Simpsonsesque. And 
since IHOP is already so com¬ 
fortable offering fare such 
as cinnamon rolls dipped in 
French toast batter and fried, 
their test kitchen might as well 
start mining past Simpsons 
episodes for new ideas. 

6. Starbucks’ Blackberry Green Tea 
Frappuccino 

Give Starbucks some credit. 
Most world-beating franchises 
grow more cautious as their 
brands mature. But Starbucks 


_ two 

» # //* . 

# # V L > / \ 4 |/> > % 





is still not afraid to gross us 
all out. If you walked into a 
Starbucks last summer, you 
couldn’t miss the promo¬ 
tional posters for this blended 
creme with an otherworldly 
hue. A blackberry flavored 
green tea frappe topped with 
whipped cream and blackberry 
syrup—in other words, fruity 
chalk paste. 

7. Pizza Hut’s Cheesy Bites Pizza 
Pizza Hut truly is an innova¬ 
tor when it comes to tweak¬ 
ing the standard pizza format. 


This monstrous blanket of 
cheese and pepperoni comes 
ringed with 28 “pullable, pop- 
pable” cheese bites because, 
you know, there’s just never 
enough cheese on the pizza 
itself. My suggestion for a fun 
parlor game the next time you 
have company over is to try and 
brainstorm Pizza Hut’s next 
corporate test kitchen folly. 
Here’s my contribution to get 
things started: A pepperoni 
pizza topped with miniature 
pepperoni pizzas. 

8. Ruby Tuesday’s Triple Prime 
Burger 

This burger is crying out for 
a co-promotion with Al Steak 
Sauce, as it’s ground blend of 
prime tenderloin, prime rib- 
eye, and prime sirloin are the 
epitome of a steakburger. Still, 
I can imagine them getting 
lazy during a Saturday night 
rush, running out of one or 
two of the three primes 

and just throwing 
a few breakfast 
links into the 
grinder 
to get it 
done. 
Actual¬ 
ly, that 
might 

^ not be a 
bad idea 
for their 
next burg¬ 
er promo¬ 
tion: com¬ 
bine ground 
beef and Italian 
sausage into a 

single patty and call it the Due 
Amici Burger. 

9. Burger King’s BK Stackers 
Burger 

Perhaps you’ve heard of those 
rare caffeine fiends who dare to 
order the quad cappuccino (a 
cappuccino with four shots of 
espresso). Well, Burger King is 
now seeking to offer the burger 
equivalent of the quad capp. 

BK Stackers encourages the 
Burger King patron to order 
a burger with up to four lay¬ 
ers of beef and cheese topped 
with bacon and sauce. In other 


words, according to their web¬ 
site, “no veggies allowed.” This 
statement’s overt scorn for nec¬ 
essary dietary fiber inspired my 
wife to dub this the “Colonos¬ 
copy Burger.” 

10. Arby’s Loaded Potato Bites 
with Cool Ranch Sour Cream 

Somehow driving around 
always gives me a powerful 
hankering for a fully loaded 
baked potato. But I know I’ll 
somehow just end up with it 
in my lap. Thankfully, Arby’s 
has transformed this unwieldy 
side dish with a creation al¬ 
lowing for maximum por¬ 
tability. These deep-fried 
wedge-shaped potato bites 
are studded with bacon bits 
and cheddar, and come with a 
little cup of Cool Ranch sour 
cream for dipping. Best of 
all, both items fit comfortable 
into the double cup holder in 
the middle console. Now if 
only they could add in bits of 
potato skin to the mix—that 
would be genius. 


TOP 10 RECIPES I LEARNED 
OR INVENTED IN 2006 


BY NOMY LAMM, PUNK PLANET 

COLUMNIST 

10. Vegetarian Chicken and Dumplings 

I made my girlfriend’s favor¬ 
ite childhood feast for her 
birthday, using gluten chicken 
(“quorn”), vegetarian chicken 
broth powder + water, bisquick 
dumplings all simmered to¬ 
gether. Very realistic! 

9. Kugel (Yiddish for “pudding”) 
OK, I learn how to make this 
at least once a year and then 
forget. It’s my grandma’s 
recipe: half a pound of egg 
noodles, four tablespoons of 
butter, a cup of cottage cheese, 
half a cup of sour cream, two 
eggs, a quarter-cup of sugar, 
and raisins. Mix it all to¬ 
gether, dump it in a greased 
pan, and top it off with corn 
flakes crushed up with brown 
sugar and butter. (I don’t know 
where they got corn flakes in 
the shtetl.) Bake one hour 325 
degrees. Sooo not vegan, but 
soooo delicious. 


66 PUNK PLANET 




































8. Carrot Cake 

Again, my girlfriend’s favor¬ 
ite. Mix two cups flour, two 
teaspoons soda, two and a half 
teaspoons cinnamon, two cups 
brown sugar. Add one and a 
half cups vegetable oil, four 
eggs, a half-cup of raisins, 
three cups of grated carrots and 
one cup chopped walnuts. Bake 
in a greased, floured pan for 
about an hour at 325 degrees. 

7. Nomy’s Invention #1 

Everything I invent is basically a 
bunch or random stuff thrown 
together to create a delicious 
mishmash. This one uses all 
raw, fresh ingredients, chopped 
up and mixed together. Brown 
rice topped with avocado, basil, 
spinach, apple (or mango!), and 
cashews, seasoned with flax oil, 
Bragg’s liquid aminos, and nu¬ 
tritional yeast. 

6. Massaged Chard Salad 

That’s right, massaged. I 
learned how to make this from 
a massage therapist. Thinly 
slice four or more large leaves 
of chard, including the stalks. 
Grate carrots and beets into 
the mix. Add chopped al¬ 
monds and dried cranberries 
(ingredients can vary). Drizzle 
olive oil, sesame oil, brown 
rice vinegar and fresh lemon 
juice, then dig in and mas¬ 
sage the fuck out of that salad 
with your bare hands, until the 
chard is limp and absorbent. 
Serve cold. This is my mom’s 
new favorite food. 

5. Nomy’s Invention #2 

This one should be cooked 
over time in a cast iron skil¬ 
let. Onions, ginger, beets, 
and sweet potatoes sauteed in 
butter and curry powder. Add 
water, simmer covered for ten 
minutes or so. Add broccoli, 
kale, finely chopped garlic, 
cinnamon, apples, and coco¬ 
nut milk. Serve over rice. 

4. Flourless Chocolate Cake 

This one was seriously compli¬ 
cated, I won’t be able to fully 
instruct you. It involves using 
a double boiler to make a cus¬ 
tard out of egg yolks and sugar 
then melting in chocolate, 


beating egg whites into “soft 
peaks,” folding the melted 
chocolate and egg whites to¬ 
gether, things I don’t usually 
do. There’s a recipe here: www. 
cacaoweb.net/flourlesschoco- 
latecake.html. 

3. Paneer Korma 

I actually have never made 
this; my girlfriend gave me 
this recipe. It’s freakin’ good. 
One package of paneer, cut 
into cubes, plus a quarter cup 
dry fruits and nuts (cashews 
and golden raisins, or get 
creative). Saute in oil for two 
minutes, set aside. Heat oil in 
a large frying pan and saute 
finely chopped fresh cilantro, 
garlic, ginger, and two onions. 
Add red chili powder, garam 
masala, turmeric powder to 
taste. Once the onions are 
translucent, put the mixture in 
a blender and liquify, then put 
it back in the pan. Reduce heat 
to simmer, add one cup cream, 
one can tomato sauce, half a 
package of frozen peas, and 
the paneer with the dried fruit 
and nuts. Simmer uncovered, 
stirring often, until peas are 
cooked. Serve over rice. 

2. Nomy’s Invention #3 

I have been known to drink 
smoothies with all of these in¬ 
gredients: avocado, banana, 
frozen mamey pulp (this is a 
Cuban fruit), berries, brown 
rice, flax meal, flax oil, juice 
(orange, strawberry, or cherry). 
I’ve even put kale in a smoothie. 
The first few ingredients make 
it thick and creamy, the brown 
rice makes it hearty, the flax oil 
makes it rich, the juice makes it 
drinkable. Yum. 

1. Kombucha 

This is a fungus/bacteria that 
digests caffeine and sugar and 
turns it into this healthy tonic 
that makes you live longer. 

You make tea and add sugar, 
then let it sit in ajar with the 
kombucha for ten days or so, 
then strain it, flavor it (if 
desired), and bottle it. The 
longer it sits, the stronger and 
more vinegary it gets. Once 
it’s bottled if you leave it out 


it will become more and more 
carbonated. Watch out, some¬ 
times they pop their corks. 

My favorites have been made 
with Jasmine tea and cran¬ 
berry juice, or Oolong and 
ginger. One time my mom did 
one with chai spice tea and it 
tasted like clove-flavored soda 
(but I don’t think it was good 
for the kombucha, it got all 
brown and wilty). They pro¬ 
duce “babies” which you have 
to peel off and either find 
new homes for, or throw away. 
They are fun and gross to 
handle, like a placenta. 



BY SARAH STONE WUNDER, PUNK 
PLANET REVIEWER 

1. Refried beans, Las Mananitas, 
3523 N. Halsted St., Chicago 

Las Mananitas has the best 
refried beans I’ve ever had, 
and I’m a gal that eats a lot of 
Mexican food. I visit this his 
North Halsted establishment a 
couple times a month, and I’d 
recommend everything on the 
menu—just remember to order 
extra refrieds. 

2. Fish tacos, Sidebar Grille, 221 
N. La Salle St., Chicago 

I’m 27 , but I admit that I still 
giggle every time I order “fish 
tacos.” However, these tacos at 
Sidebar featuring a delicious 
spicy sauce and crispy cabbage 
make the slightly embarrassing 
menu order worth it. 

3. Pot stickers, The Chicago Diner, 
3411 N. Halsted St., Chicago 

Carnivore or not, the pot 
stickers at this all-vegetar¬ 
ian diner are some of the best 
you’ll ever have. 

4. Tapas, X/0, 3441 N. Halsted 
St., Chicago 

I’m just going with “tapas” here 
because I can’t remember ev¬ 
erything I ate at X/O. But what 
I do remember is that every¬ 
thing was incredible. 

5. Bavarian plate, Spatenhaus, Res- 
idenzstrasse 12, Munich, Germany 

Speaking of not knowing 
what you’re eating, I have no 


idea what was on the Bavarian 
plate at this German eatery. I 
know there was some sausage 
on there. I think some pig 
knuckle. Some other stuff. All 
of it, though, was mighty tasty, 
especially when paired with 
spicy mustard. 

6. Catfish burrito, Alto Cinco, 526 
Westcott St., Syracuse, NY 

I used to get this about once a 
week when I lived in Syracuse. 
The catfish is crunchy, spicy, 
and delicious. Visiting Alto, 
which we used to call hippie 
Mexican due to its dread- 
locked, patchouli-drenched 
waitstaff and cooks, was a must 
when I visited Syracuse this 
year. Alto was a fabulous as 
ever, in all its hemp leaf glory. 

7. Hot wings, Quaker Steak and 
Lube, 101 Chestnut St., Sharon, PA 

No visit to the in-laws in 
Western Pennsylvania is com¬ 
plete without a trip to Quaker 
Steak for some hot wings. I’ve 
never met anyone who could 
eat the “atomic” wings, Quak¬ 
er Steak’s hottest level. How¬ 
ever, with 18 types of sauces 
with varying levels of hotness, 
there are tasty wings to match 
every palate. 

8. Salmon cakes, my kitchen, Chicago 

My husband makes these for 
me when I’ve had a bad day, or 
when I’m celebrating some¬ 
thing, or pretty much anytime 
he wants to make me happy. 
Crispy cakes, spicy mayo—I am 
one lucky wife. 

9. Le Quack Japonais, Japonais, 
600 W. Chicago Ave., Chicago 

This Asian-French fusion duck 
dish at Japonais has so many 
different flavors going on—all 
of them delicious. However, 
that could be said for pretty 
much everything on the menu. 

10. Cheeseburger, Boston Blackies, 
164 E. Grand Ave., Chicago 

Boston Blackies is known 
for its half-pound burgers, 
and for good reason. They’re 
incredible. They’re also sur¬ 
prisingly easy to polish off for 
their size—so good you won’t 
notice how full you are. 


P U N K P L A N E T 67 





SUGAR FIX 2006: MY TOP 10 
SUGAR-FILLED MOMENTS H 
OF THE YEAR 


BY SUE ANNE ZOLLINGER, PIE OF 

THE MONTH, INT’L. 

1. Maple Butter. 

If by some horrible misfor¬ 
tune you, like I, had no expo¬ 
sure to Maple Butter during 
your early life, go to your local 
shop or Internet or whatever 
RIGHT NOW and find some. 

It does not contain butter. It 
has a texture I cannot possi¬ 
bly describe with words but is 
both softly granular and stiffly 
creamy. The texture of maple 
butter (spread on a hot slice 
of baguette, for example) as it 
presses into the roof of your 
mouth and finds its way back 
onto your tongue is something 
you should not leave this world 
without experiencing. I have 
also found maple to be a potent 
aphrodisiac, but admit this 
may only be true if the con¬ 
sumer happens to be a hard¬ 
core sugar addict . . . ? 


2. The Kit Kat Odyssey 

Episode One: Damon Locks 
(of The Eternals), long-time 
lover of the Kit Kat, returns 
from tour of Japan bearing 
Green Tea flavored Kit Kats. 
Pale green exterior. Exotic. 
Smooth. Green Tea Kit Kat? 
What? 

Episode Two: Damon returns 
from European tour with the 
even more amazing Blood Or¬ 
ange Kit Kat from Germany; 
dark chocolate with blood or¬ 
ange filling and a bat on the 
package design (so punk). 

Episode Three: Start to find 


proliferation of new, unusual 
Kit Kats stateside: milkshake, 
orange and cream, coffee, 
triple chocolate, extra crispy 
(didn’t find it all that crispy). 
Mail some off to Damon (of 
course he’s already seen them). 

Episode Four: Read up on 
history of Kit Kat. Invented 
in Britain by Rowntree in 
I935> named for some literary 
club that met in an l8th cen¬ 
tury pie-house (note to self: 
find out WHAT a pie-house 
is!). Kit Kat entry in OED: 
Kit-cat / kit-kat. (f. Kit (= 
Christopher) Cat or Catling, 
the keeper of the pie-house 
in Shire Lane, by Temple 
Bar, where the club originally 
met.). Apparently there are 
hundreds of different flavors. 
Hundreds? Really? 

Episode Five: Spent $6o buy¬ 
ing crazy Kit Kats from Japan 
on eBay. 

Episode Six: Ate $6o of exotic 
Kit Kats “Seriously,” I say to 
my friends, “look 
it up. These are 
just the tip of the 
iceberg! There 
are zillions more 
flavors.” Then, 
just to blow their 
minds, I casu¬ 
ally list all the 
flavors I had re¬ 
cently consumed: 
Cherry blossom 
(not cherry flavor, 
blossom flavor), 
Adzuki bean, 
Chestnut, Wish Upon A Star 
flavor (I know, not a flavor, but 
yes a flavor), Mango, Apple, 
Fruit Parfait, Noir (extra dark 
chocolate dusted in black cocoa 
powder), I-stick Kit Kat (it’s 
super long), An Nin Dofu Kit 
Kat, and some special gourmet 
blueberry cheese and passion 
fruit flavor developed by the 
Iron Chef Tagaki. 

Episode Seven: Compulsively 
checking online sources for 
release of the much-awaited, 
and most certainly delicious, 
Pumpkin Kit Kat . . . details 
forthcoming . . . 




3. Marshmallow Cheeseburger 

A marshmallow of practically 
the size, shape, and color of 
a life-size cheeseburger. I say 
again ... an actual life-size 
cheeseburger, but made en¬ 
tirely of marshmallow. 

4. Danish Licorice 

OK. If you don’t like licorice 
skip to item #5 ■ And by licorice 
I don’t mean those plastic-like 
tubes of red stuff sometimes 
called “red licorice” here, but 
which has no actual relation¬ 
ship to real licorice, which 
is an extract from a plant. A 
plant that incidentally has no 
actual relationship to Anise . 

. . besides that they are both 
plants. But while Anise (in the 
mint family) and Licorice (in 
the legume family) are not the 
same plant, it is true that many 
“licorice” candies around the 
world use some blend of anise 
and licorice oils for flavor. 

But I digress . . . The point is 
that the Danes know licorice. 
They really know licorice. For 
anyone who wants to experi¬ 
ence licorice in a way that they 
thought was only possible in 
their blackish brown chewy salty 
sweet daydreams, go to Den¬ 
mark. My recommendations: 

— “Super Flyers”—I cm diam¬ 
eter sweet chewy licorice tubes 
filled with loose rock crystals 
of Ammonium Chloride (like 
an edible pixie stick, only more 
. . . ammonia-y?) 

— A candy bar (forgot the 
name) that while perhaps look¬ 
ing innocent, just like any old 
Mars bar on the outside, actu¬ 
ally contains a thick, black, 
sticky, gooey, slightly salty, lic¬ 
orice flavored roofing tar that 
drips onto your chin and coats 
your teeth in black film. 

— A creamy putty-colored gi¬ 
ant scoop of licorice ice cream 
at the city zoo in Odense. 



—Bagged mix of hard and 
chewy licorice in flavors rang¬ 
ing from sweet to salty to 
ammonium-y and even chili 
powder- 
y. You’ll 
recognize 
it by the 
cartoon of 
a crazed 
warthog 
racecar 
driver on 
the front. 

It’s called 
“Matter 
Fagger” 

(unless 
your Dan¬ 
ish is really good, I don’t rec¬ 
ommend trying to ask for this 
candy by name, and especially 
don’t yell it at passers-by). 


5. Eyeball-like Fruits that Taste Like 
Flowers 


Walking through Chinatown 
in NYC one day, I found ven¬ 
dors selling all four of my most 
favorite fruits: rambutan, 
lychee, longan and mamon- 
cillo. Some the most deli¬ 
cately flavored and sensual of 
fruits, they are all members of 
the same botanical family, the 
Sapindaceae, which, perhaps 
tellingly, is the same family as 
Maple (see item I. Maple But¬ 
ter). Similar in size to each 
other, and to an eyeball, they 
are small, juicy, sweet and 
pleasantly floral. 

They are each consumed in the 
same way. 

a. Snap the skin in half with 
your teeth 

b. Carefully discard the top 
half of the skin 


c. Slurp the eyeball fruit into 
your mouth 

d. Suck the fruit off the single 
large stone. 

In rambutan, lychee, and lon¬ 
gan, this sucking is more like 
slurping and the fruit slips eas¬ 
ily off the smooth stone. In ma- 
moncillo, the pleasure is in the 
sucking process itself more than 
the fruit consumption (like 
chewing on licorice roots or 


68 PUNK PLANET 






sugar cane), wherein the juice is 
extracted slowly and therapeuti¬ 
cally from the stringy, slightly 
astringent stone. 

Perhaps if you personally are 
not stuck living in southern 
Indiana, you will have a hard 
time imagining how this grand 
slam of eyeball-fruit sucking 
could have been such a hugely 
monumental event for me. I 
assure you, it was. 



6. Negro 

I can say, without question, 
that this Serbian candy is the 
strangest sweet I have eaten in 
years. And, coming from me, 
this says a lot about its strange¬ 
ness, to wit: I am currently 
sucking on a piece of pine sap 
candy from France, and please 
see item Danish Licorice. 

Not bad really, but not really 
good either. 

Quick overview of its strange¬ 
ness: Blue (not black). Hard 
candy shell tastes of licorice- 
camphor-eucalyptus-fruity- 
honey, contrasted with the soft 
filling of a distinct creamy 
toffee caramel that is slightly 
salty. Wrapper has large red 
letters reading “NEGRO” 
and a black line drawing of 
some kind of man I originally 
mistook for a bagpiper, then 
changed my mind to drum 
major, and now think more 
likely a chimney sweep in a 
floppy beret. 

7. Cotton Candy the Size of an 
Overweight Pug 

Made by two boys at Okto- 
berfest much too young to be 
running a cotton candy ma¬ 
chine. Completely lopsided, 
not entirely spun into floss, 
and eaten outside in a light 
drizzle, which caused the outer 
surfaces of the pink fluffy pug 


cloud to bead up into droplets 
of chewy sticky crunchy hot- 
pink sugar goo. 

8. Idaho Spud Cream Pie 

If you are familiar with this 
strange and possibly disgusting 
candy bar (depending on your 
feelings toward slug-shaped 
grey marshmallows covered in 
chocolate and coconut), you 
may find it difficult to imag¬ 
ine that a pie made from a pile 
of melted Spuds is actually, 
honestly, genuinely delicious. 

If you aren’t familiar with the 
venerable Idaho Spud, con¬ 
sider this: The “big three” of 
American candy conglomerates 
(Mars, Hershey, and Nestle), 
along with prohibitively high 
shelving fees charged by most/ 
all corporate grocery stores, 
truck stops, and drug store 
chains have all but run every 
small independent candy bar 
manufacturer out of business 
in the last 30 years. So, if for 
no other reason than to support 
the “little guy” and keep these 
regional candy bars around for 
future generations, you should 
find yourself eight Idaho Spud 
Candy bars and make this pie 
(www.idahospud.com). 



Idaho Spud Cream Pie Recipe: 
In a small saucepan or micro¬ 
wave-safe bowl, melt eight Ida¬ 
ho Spuds and I l/2 C milk over 
medium heat or in microwave 
on high (stirring constantly, 
or at regular intervals, in mi¬ 
cro). When mixture is smooth, 
set aside to cool. Whip l/2 C. 
heavy cream until stiff. Fold 
whipped cream into slightly 
cooled mixture. Pour into pie 
shell and refrigerate until set. 
Top with whipped cream and 
either shaved chocolate or, 
if you can find them, those 
toasted coconut marshmallows 
cut in half (they look strangely 
potato-like). 


9. 15 Bags of Philippines Dried 
Mangoes. 

At least 15. I’m probably being 
conservative so as not to appear 
gluttonous. Likely, actually. 

10. Kissing Boyfriend Immediately 
After He’s Eaten Philippines Dried 
Mangoes. 

I actually used to daydream 
about kissing the person I 
loved just after they ate Turk¬ 
ish delight. The kind covered 
in powdered sugar. But before 
you start picturing some slob 
who just ate a box of powdered 
donuts, I don’t mean kissing 
someone with visible powder 
on their lips, but rather this 
unavoidable and unseen coat¬ 
ing of very fine airborne sugar 


that inevitably accompanies the 
consumption of dusted confec¬ 
tions. I could so vividly imagine 
the surprise of the sugary lips 
combined with that heady rose 
perfume on their breath that 
I’d get a little bit dizzy feeling 
and stare off into space . . . 

Anyway. No one I have loved has 
ever loved Turkish delight like 
I do. But, I recently discovered 
that dried mango has a similar 
aphrodisiac quality. Eaten as the 
boyfriend does, by slowly sucking 
off the sugary coating until it’s 
this straight concentrated sliver 
of mango . . . and the fruity per¬ 
fume of mango on his breath . . . 
yeah, it gets pretty close. 

What can Isay? Sugar is my only vice. 



TOP 10 PUNKEST PARENTING 
MOMENTS OF 2006 


BY MICHAEL CARRIERE, PUNK 
PLANET CONTRIBUTING EDITOR 

10. Seeing the mischievous, excited 
look in my two year-old daughter’s 
eye the first time she heard DC 
hardcore legends Void. 

9. Observing my daughter leading 
a pack of older little boys through 
an obstacle-filled course around our 
local playground. 

8. Listening to my daughter wail on 
her toy guitar like a mini Greg Ginn. 
7. Finding out that there are a num¬ 
ber of children’s music CDs and 
DVDs that are not absolutely inane 
and mind-numbing (thank you, 
Pancake Mountain DVD series). 

6. Watching my daughter put 
together outrageous outfits that 
would make even the most fashion- 
savvy punk do a double-take. 

5. Dancing around the living room 
with my daughter to Bikini Kill’s 
“Rebel Girl.” Who says Riot Girl is 
dead? 


voice these thoughts and feelings. 

2. Coming to the realization that 
a child is not an extension of you 
and your likes and dislikes. Expose 
them to everything, but don’t feel 
bad when they don’t want to follow 
your lead. 

1. Hearing my daughter say “I love 
you” to me for the first time. It 
made my year, and probably even 
my life. 


TOP 10 WORDS MY 18- 
MONTH-OLD SON LEARNED 
IN 2006, SPELLED mhm 
PHONETICALLY, WITH ■■ 
ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS ■ 


BY DANIEL SINKER, PUNK PLANET 
FOUNDER AND PUBLISHER 

1. Die!! (Music) 

2. Ortz (Horse) 

3. Bubble (Apple, Flower, and al¬ 
most anything round) 

4. Guck (Milk) 

5. Asta (Pizza, derived from Pasta) 

6. Ot Dot (Hot Dog) 

7. Mao (Cat) 


4. Working on art projects with my 
daughter at home: my new defini¬ 
tion of D.I.Y. 

3. Raising someone that’s already 
so smart and already so attuned 
to her feelings—and not afraid to 


8. Oi Oi Oi (Pig) 

9. Boooooo!! (Cow) 

10. FUCK!!! (Truck, said almost 
exclusively very loudly and in the 
presence of old women) 


P U N K P L A N E T 69 







TOP 10 THINGS ACTUALLY 
ON MY TO-DO LIST THAT 11 
NEVER GOT AROUND TO J 
IN 2006 


BY ANNE ELIZABETH MOORE, PUNK 
PLANET CO-EDITOR 

1. Look up actual annual sales of 
hotcakes on the Internet. 


This I can’t do, because no 
entrepreneur, if you can be¬ 
lieve it, has bothered to 
^ track, online, the sales 
of hotcakes. This 
strikes me as a great 
flaw in our capitalist 
system, ‘cause seri¬ 
ously, I would pay 
a dollar a month to 
have daily updates 
on the actual sales of hot¬ 
cakes, probably two dollars if 
it were a searchable database, 
divisible by types of syrups and 
region and ingredients. 



2. Ikea, Cambodia, India, New Or¬ 
leans, Nicaragua. 

I have quite a few places to get 
to these days but I never seem 
to be able to find the time, you 
know? They’re all back on the 
’07 list, though, and I’m pretty 
sure I’ll be able to get at least 
one of them taken care of with¬ 
in the year. Oh! What’s weird 
is that the day after I wrote this 
list I totally went to Ikea, and it 
was staffed entirely by Indians. 
So I can knock both of those 
things off my list, maybe. 


3. Health insurance. 


As much as this is an ex¬ 
tremely high priority for me—I 
have health issues, boy do I 
have health issues—and despite 
that technically I can probably 
start to think about being able 
to afford it now, finally, after 
some 12 years or so since I was 
last on a insurance plan—my 
parent’s—I just really haven’t 
had time since June to do 
the research required. Also, 
though, going from being the 
kind of girl who has health in¬ 
surance from being the kind 
of girl who has no health in¬ 
surance turns out to be sort of 
a big leap for me, and I haven’t 
quite figured out how to deal 
with it, emotionally. 

4. Frame all posters and artwork in 


my apartment and office. 

Very simply, I can’t afford it. 
Damn you, talented artists and 
poster-people. Why do you be¬ 
leaguer me with all your beau¬ 
tiful wares? 

5. Do something about 
Juliette Lewis. 

I think someone should, but I 
just can’t figure out what, yet. 
Ideas? 

6. Pay off student loans. 

I mean: I started my master’s 
program II years ago, and I’m 
not sure it can ever be said that 
I’ve actually used it. It’s starting 
to seem like that library book 
that I haven’t read, and won’t 
ever, but that I can’t return on 
principle anyway because I’m 
not done with it. Except like 
10,000 times as expensive. 

7. Wayne at California Psychics: 
1-800-573-4830. 

My best friend in the uni¬ 
verse stopped advising me 
on my love life and started 
responding to all my dating 
questions by saying, “Have 
you called Wayne yet?” and 
even sent me a check to cover 
the cost of the call. But seri¬ 
ously, I’m supposed to take 
advice about my love life 
from someone in California 
named Wayne? I don’t think 
so. Anyway, if it’s so impor¬ 
tant I talk to them I would 
think they would call me. In 
fact, I suggested this sort of 
thing to my friend—that she 
call them about my love life 
if she was so damn interested 
in what Wayne had to say, and 
together they could just sorta 
feel it out from there, you 
know, psychically, but 
she said that wasn’t funny 
and how was I ever going 
to find anything out if I 
didn’t go to the experts? 

8. Personal website. 

I just don’t think I can stand 
to be the person whose kitchen 
is in a fucking shambles but 
whose website looks great. Seri¬ 
ously, if you want my updated 
bio, maybe you can come over 
first and help me reorganize the 
spice rack. 



9. Dentist. 

Strangely, my reasons for not 
getting on this one are much 
closer to #7 (above) than any¬ 
thing else. If I really need a 
dentist that bad, I think, one 
will probably come to me. 

10. Tattoo. 

This has been on my to-do list 
since maybe 1991, but I just 
haven’t found the right image 
yet. At first, it was, you know, 
gonna be some superhero thing. 
Supergirl, maybe. And then 
some underground comic-book 
thing, like the cigar-smoking 
writer girl in Dan Clowes’s Like a 
Velvet Glove Cast in Iron. Then I was 
more excited about medical and 
biological imagery: a rendering 
of the exact bones and arteries in 
the exact location under the skin 
being tattooed, or some kind 
of winged bug, really really big. 

I also thought for a long time I 
would just pay a talented friend 
to draw something awesome and 
I would put it on my body some¬ 
where appropriate, maybe some 
night after a lot of drinking. 

Most recently I wanted the Chi¬ 
cago flag on my arm, like Mike 
“The Intern” Barron has, or the 
Chicago Sky logo maybe, but not 
enough to actually go get it, ap¬ 
parently. Oddly enough, I don’t 
think I’d regret having gotten 
any of these tattoos now. 


MY TOP 10 FAVORITE 
THINGS OF 2006 (in no 

PARTICULAR ORDER, 

EXCEPT FOR NUMBER ONE> 


BY DAN DIDIER, DRUMMER 
(MARITIME) AND FATHER 

1. Miette Rin Didier born May 1st 

2. Hot Chip —The Warning 

3. Wolfgang Tillmans 
retrospective exhibi¬ 
tion at the MCA 

4. The Streets —The 
Hardest Way To 
Make An Easy Living 

5. Little Britain 

6. Chuck Klosterman IV 

7. Scoop 

8. Project Runway 

9. Band of Horses —Band of Horses 

10. Little Miss Sunshine 


^ 


TEN PERSONAL “FIRSTS” 
FOR 2006 


BY JAY RYAN, POSTER ARTIST 

1. First broken wrist (skateboarding 
in Denton, Texas, March). 

2. First solo painting show (August). 

3. First time I missed a flight (to 
Germany, September). 

4. First car accident with me as a 
driver (not my fault). 

5. First real beard (Jan-May). 

6. First time to see a couple of my 
favorite bands (including Big Black 
& the English Beat). 

7. First solo drive from Bellingham, 
WA to San Diego, CA. 

8. First time interviewed on televi¬ 
sion (for my poster book). 

9. First ticket for a moving violation 
(rolled a stop sign in Evanston, IL). 

10. First time I ever drove a friend 
with severe pain in his balls to the 
emergency room in NYC in the 
middle of the night. 


TOP 10 INTERESTING ■ 
DISCOVERIES, 
REVELATIONS, AND! 
EXPERIENCES OF 2006 


BY PAUL M DAVIS, PUNK PLANET 
CONTRIBUTOR AND VOLUNTEER 

1. Moving to Chicago and discover¬ 
ing that people will actually pay you 
to write, promote music, and dick 
around in graphic design programs. 

2. Promptly deciding to never work 
another food service job after real¬ 
izing point #1. 

3. The Famous Bowl. 


4. Being added to the Department 
of Homeland Security’s flight watch 
list a week after my first piece for 
Punk Planet ran. 

5. Hot Doug’s. 

6. My lovely partner flying me out 
to Santa Cruz for my 30th birth¬ 
day, and keeping it a surprise 
until we boarded the Blue Line 

to the airport. 

7. The hangovers get worse. 

8. The genius of Karl Pilking- 
ton and Monkey News. 

9. Discovering that the only 
intelligent and complex discus¬ 
sion of US foreign policy in 
the mass media is on a fuck¬ 
ing remake of Battlestar 
Galactica. 

10. Killdozer Fridays. 


j 


70 PUNK PLANET 





BY JANELLE HESSIG, PUNK PLANET 
COLUMNIST 

1. The midgetty cowboy in small 
town Nevada who danced (and sav¬ 
agely defended!) a busty Coors Lite 
lady made of cardboard 

2. Paul Giamatti in Lady In The Water. 

All sensitive horror is lame. 
However, casting bug-eyed Paul 
Giamatti in a horror movie was 
a ridiculously awesome move. 
Like having Yosemite Sam star 
in a broadway musical. 

3. Whip-its in the bathtub on my 
birthday 


4. Elephants Gone Wild! 

After having their social struc¬ 
ture fucked with for so many 
years, elephants have begun 
attacking humans and getting 
revenge! 

5. Joan Jett at the carnival in San 
Rafael. 

I thought she was flirting with 
me, but it turns out that Joan 
has a twitch. Who knew? 

6. The dude in my animation class 
who makes elaborate drawings of 
his Playstation controller, sings to 
himself all day, and brings in maga¬ 


zine clippings of ladies in naughty 
lingerie. He is going to win! 

7. The “Failed Rides” section of 
the Disney exhibit at the Oakland 
Museum. 

With some of the rides, I 
couldn’t really understand 
why they didn’t make the 
grade. Not so with Casey 
Jones’ Railroad. Disney’s 
“imagineers” decided to make 
the ride using REAL rock 
candy and it was soon overrun 
by birds. 


8. The “muffbag” at the prison¬ 
ers’ inventions exhibit at the Yerba 
Buena museum in SF. 

9. Pooping outside of a ghost town 
on a stool with a hole cut out of it. 

It was surreal and quiet, like 
pooping on the moon. 

10. A crusty giving a handjob to 
another crusty while singing Britney 
Spears at karaoke (witnessed by 
Sarah Bailey). 

They cited “crusty persecu¬ 
tion” as the reason they were 
kicked out. 


PUNK PLANET 71 






















BY JON LANGFORD, THE MEKONS, 
WACO BROTHERS, HOST OF “THE 
ECLECTIC COMPANY” ON WXRT FM. 

1. Looked inside Hank Williams 
trousers at Marty Stuart’s honky- 
tonk archive while on exciting fam¬ 
ily trip to Nash Vegas. 

2. Performed at The Touch & Go/ 
Hideout test—the clouds hanging 
low overhead and not a blade of 
grass in sight. 

3. Went backstage with Peter 
Doyle at the Sydney Justice and 
Police Museum. 


4. Opened for The Goldie Lookin’ 
Chain at the Transporter Bridge’s 
100th birthday party in my home¬ 
town Newport, Gwent. 

5. Reformed The Three Johns. 


6. Didn’t get arrest¬ 
ed with the Waco 
Brothers at October- 
fest in Menasha, Wl. 

7. Swam up and 
down and up and 
down in the salt wa¬ 
ter concrete pool at 
Bronte Bay in Sydney 
with the waves crash¬ 
ing over the sides. 

8. Had Ian Maclagan of 
the Faces as my guest 

on the Eclectic Company (on my 
birthday!) 



9. Tattood ARROGANT and STU¬ 
PIDITY on my forearms and re¬ 
newed my resident alien card. 

10. Finished the fuckin’ Mekons 
album. 


TOP 10 MEMORABLE ■■ 
READINGS I DID IN 2006 


BY T COOPER, NOVELIST 

1. Corte Madera, CA: Book Passage 

I was doing a reading for A 
Fictional Histoiy of the United States 
with Huge Chunks Missing, with my 
co-editor Adam Mansbach and 
contributor Daniel Alarcon. 
We were talking about the ways 
in which history is being hi¬ 
jacked these days, how facts are 
being spun-controlled by the 
current administration, and 
before we know it, this bullshit 
will slip between the covers of 
our history books, blah blah 
blah. When we opened it up to 


questions, this older guy in the 
back—if I had to guess I’d say 
he was a Korean War-era vet or 
something—raised his hand, 
and I called on him. 

“You know about the Native 
American and the settler?” 

We’re thinking we’re getting 
a joke, and so we sort of un¬ 
comfortably gestured for him 
to continue: “Well, one day a 
white man on a horse rides up 
to an Indian in the middle of 
the West, gets off his horse and 
says, ‘How much of this land is 
yours?’ and the Indian points 
in all four directions and says, 
‘All of this.’ But really, who’s 
to say who owned what? What 
does this mean, pointing in 
every direction? I mean, who’s 
to say who owns the air?” 

Adam and I sort of waited to 
see which direction this was 
going as he trailed off, but 
then Daniel, who had been si¬ 
lent the entire time (outside of 
his reading), leaned over into 
the mic and said, “I’m going to 
go on record and say it was the 
Indian’s land.” 

The guy looked at him and 
paused for a second, but then 
completely ignored Daniel and 
said, “Well, let me just tell you 
what happened next. The In¬ 
dians invited all the white men 
to dinner, and they share corn 
and turkeys and break bread, 
and they’re all sitting there, 
and what, so we’re supposed to 
believe that the white man just 
took out his musket and shot 
all the Indians dead? Now tell 
me, is that good business? I 
don’t think so.” 

2. Oakland, CA: Oakland Public 
Library 

This is another reading with 
the same line-up as above, and 
similarly during the Q&A, 
the first hand shot up and 
asked Adam a question about 
his story, which is about Ota 
Benga, the African pygmy 
who was taken from his home 
and displayed at the St. Louis 
World’s Fair in 1904, and then 
displayed in the Bronx Zoo in 
the monkey house. This wom¬ 


an said, “You know that wasn’t 
true, anything in your story 
about the pygmy.” 

Adam said, “Well actually, 
that’s what’s so amazing about 
it, the truth being stranger 
than fiction, that all of the 
facts of Benga’s life are in my 
story, and the only thing I 
made up was the perspective 
from which the story was told, 
that of the zoo-keeper.” 

The lady was like, “Well, no, 
it’s not true, and even if it was, 
then you’d be plagiarizing for 
the purposes of your story.” 

“Thank you for your 
thoughts,” Adam said politely, 
“but really, it’s true that Mr. 
Benga was displayed in the 
Bronx Zoo, and I am a teacher 
and writer and know well what 
plagiarism is.” 

“Well, you did plagiarize if 
what you’re saying is true. Let 
me introduce myself. [Stand¬ 
ing] My name is Dr. Betty 
[undecipherable], and I’m a 
Federal Drug Administration 
investigator, and I . . . “ 

Adam interrupted her to defuse 
the situation: “Well, I’ve never 
been interrogated by an FDA 
official . . . “ The lady then cut 
him off: “Honey, I’m not inter- 
rogatingyou. If I was interro¬ 
gating you, you’d know it.” 

3. Munich, Germany: Hubert Burda 
Media headquarters 

This company is the Ger¬ 
man equivalent of Hearst, 

Time Warner, and Newscorp 
combined, and I did a press 
reading/Q&A/luncheon on a 
balcony on a warm and sunny 
Munich day, hours before the 
Pope was to show up in town. 
(Yes, I did purchase an of¬ 
ficial souvenir Pope Benedikt 
XVI mug and mouse-pad). 
When I arrived, my photo was 
projected all over the walls 
and on screens in the lobby, 
there were posters about me 
and my event on all the walls, 
and when I walked around the 
building, people were staring 
at and whispering about me as 
I passed. John Grisham was 
the only author that my pub¬ 


lisher had an event like this for 
previously, so all the people 
thought I was like, well, the 
equivalent of John Grisham 
in America. I’m pretty sure it 
was pretty much the only time 
I will get to feel like a rock-star 
as a writer. Germans seem to 
know how to treat their writ¬ 
ers—that is, as contributors to 
the culture on par with musi¬ 
cians and actors. 

So, as if that wasn’t enough 
to make this one of my top 
events of the year, I think I 
got the best question I’ve ever 
been asked at a reading. This 
youngish guy was gripping 
my book and raised his hand 
from the back. First he asked 
whether I knew Eminem (who, 
along with Charles Lindbergh, 
plays a large role in my novel). 
Then he asked if we could rap 
a little together. I sort of joked 
it off with something about 
the book being fiction, and 
he trailed off as the audience 
laughed nervously. But then 
when I was signing books after 
the reading, he came up and 
asked me to sign his copy with 
the following inscription: “I 
tie a rope around my penis and 
jump from a tree.” (I’m sorry 
to say, I declined. But I did 
inscribe it with a less offensive 
lyric—part mine, part Emi¬ 
nem’s—which seemed to make 
him happy.) 

4. Baltimore: Charm City Kitty Club 
at the Patterson Theatre 

This woman came up to me 
when I was signing books af¬ 
ter the show, and asked what 
my novel was about. I directed 
her to the flap, because some¬ 
times you just can’t answer 
that question yet another time 
when they’ve got the book in 
their hand. When she saw that 
Charles Lindbergh was a part 
of the book, and that it was 
about immigrant Jews too, she 
said, all schooling me like: 

“You know, Charles Lindbergh 
was a rabid anti-Semite,” and 
I was like, “REALLY? NO, I 
didn’t know that, but thanks 
for telling me, because now 
when I write the sequel, I can 


72 PUNK PLANET 







then sit around and enter¬ 
tain everybody with answers 
to their questions while they 
ate a lunch which I could not 
personally enjoy because of 
the meat and dairy involved. 
There were some shish-kebobs 
of fruit, but I couldn’t figure 
out a way to eat them politely 
off the stick while answering 
the requisite questions about 
how I became a writer, why I 
wrote the book I did, is it auto¬ 
biographical, etc. 

My only consolation was the 
wooden sculpture of a naked 
man with a deflated penis and 
testicles which stood directly 
behind me the whole time—a 
little personal devil—keeping 


the current war with respect 
to past wars was thorough¬ 
ly touching and illuminat¬ 
ing, but most poignant was 
his answer to a question from 
a woman in the audience who 
sounded hopeless about the 
current state of affairs in our 
country. He acknowledged how 
important it is to be angry, and 
we were all tripping on this for 
a bit, but it was Ron who ended 
on a truly inspiring note, 
stressing that without hope, 
our hard work and activism 
are pointless. It might sound 
cheesy, but collaborating with 
Ron and Bob reminded me 
of how important it is to pay 
homage to those who essen¬ 



add that in.” (This was about 
the tenth time I’ve been told by 
an older, clearly more intel¬ 
ligent person than myself that 
Lindbergh was anti-Semitic.) 
She sort of looked at me to fig¬ 
ure out what my angle was, and 
so I immediately felt bad and 
played it up, acknowledging 
that I was joking, and that of 
course I knew about Lindbergh 
and that the detail she shared 
is in fact very much a compli¬ 
cated part of the novel. I know 
it sounds like I’m the biggest 
bastard in the world right 
now, but I’m telling you, this 
is when I realized I’d hit my 
touring limit and that I needed 
to take a mental break before 
heading out on the road again. 

5. Bellingham, WA: Village Bookstore 

Now this was just one of those 
nights where you pull into a 
small town, and you’re like, 
there are cows less than five 
minutes from here; who the 
hell is gonna be showing up 
at this reading? And then you 
walk into the bookstore, and 
there are like fifty smiling 
people sitting there and wait¬ 
ing to hear what you and your 
co-editor have to say. Then 
throughout the reading people 
are nodding their heads and 
laughing at all the right places 
and oohing and aahing, and 
then after the reading portion 
is done, stimulating discussion 
ensues, and as you’re rushing 
out of there to get to the only 
restaurant that stays open past 
9 = 00 , you’re thinking, “Wow, 
I’m never reading in big towns 
again. From here on out, it’s 
small towns with captive audi¬ 
ences with nothing else to do 
on a Saturday night but check 
me out.” 

6. Torrance, CA: Borders 

One person showed up to this 
reading, and she was a Borders 
employee from another divi¬ 
sion of the store. Well, one 
other person was there, but it 
was my friend Diane who ac¬ 
companied me, so I don’t think 
she really counts. But I was 
particularly thankful to Diane 
that night: one, because she 


took pity and bought a copy 
of my novel, but second—and 
mostly—because her coming 
with me allowed us to drive in 
the carpool lane on the 405 
freeway down from Los An¬ 
geles, and this saved upwards 
of an hour of driving time. I 
never regret yet another op¬ 
portunity to re-confirm what a 
pal Diane is. 

7. Los Angeles: Dutton’s Bookstore 

As a Libra, I’ve found that 
pretty much nothing is all 
good nor all bad in my life, 
that intense highs are soon 
followed by intense lows, and 
vice versa. So on the eve¬ 
ning after the empty Torrance 
reading, I had another in Los 
Angeles proper, where my 
hometown crowd came out and 
showed some love. I think this 
reading was the spark that ul¬ 
timately got my novel onto the 
LA Times Bestseller list a week 
later—a first for me—so this 
was, for very obvious reasons, a 
very special reading for me. 

8. Frankfurt, Germany: RomanFab- 
rik (“novel factory”) 

Not all of my German read¬ 
ings went as well as number 3. 
where I glimpsed for one mo¬ 
ment a fraction of what it might 
be like to be P. Diddy. About 
two members of the press at¬ 
tended this reading/press lun¬ 
cheon I did in Frankfurt, and 
then the two people who ran 
the venue were guilted into at¬ 
tending as well—I think this 
was partly because they felt 
bad for me that nobody else 
showed up, but mostly I think it 
was because they were hungry, 
and there was a nice spread up 
there, plus an open bar. 

We sat outside at a table on 
the deck above the venue, 
and basically my editor asked 
what the two press members 
wanted, sort of implying that 
it didn’t make sense for me to 
give a full reading, but alas, 
one of them said she hadn’t 
yet read the book and would 
love to hear me read from it. 
So, I basically had to sit there 
and give a private, face-to-face 
reading for one person, and 


me steady throughout the or¬ 
deal [see photo]. 

9. Santa Monica, CA: Barnes & 
Noble (Third Street) 

This was a transcendent night, 
one I wished could’ve been re¬ 
corded (well, it was record¬ 
ed, as a podcast for Truthdig. 
com, but the sound didn’t end 
up coming out), for others 
who weren’t in attendance to 
hear. I was joined by amaz¬ 
ing writers on this night: Ron 
Kovic (“Born on the Fourth 
ofjuly”), Felicia Luna Lemus 
(“Trace Elements of Random 
Tea Parties”), and the fiercely 
progressive veteran journalist 
Robert Scheer hosted the eve¬ 
nings reading and discussion. 
It was just such a flat-out hon¬ 
or not only to publish Ron’s 
work in my anthology, but also 
to meet him and get a chance 
to do a reading with and hear 
him read from and speak about 
his work. His thoughts about 


tially invented the wheel before 
us, literally in the trenches 
during a time that was perhaps 
even more perplexing and im¬ 
possible than now. 

10. Three-way thematic tie: New 
York/San Francisco/Portland 

This is a tie among three dif¬ 
ferent readings I did in 2006 
(at the Lower East Side Tene¬ 
ment Museum, Cody’s, and 
Powell’s, respectively), where 
one person fell asleep in the 
audience each time. (Yo, I did 
over 50 events this year in two 
different countries for three 
different books, so 3 out of 50 
isn’t the worst ratio.) 

I like when people fall asleep at 
my readings because it’s com¬ 
forting to be reminded of how 
comforting it is for people of 
all ages to have somebody read 
to them in a safe, quiet place 
where nobody asks you to do 
anything but sit still and be 
quiet for a spell. 


PUNK PLANET 73 








MY TOP 10 EVENTS, PEOPLE, 
PLACES, RECORDS, BOOKS, J 
AND CULTURAL hhmJ 
LANDMARKS AND ■■■ 
TOUCHSTONES OF 2006 ■ 


BY LARRY LIVERMORE, PUNK 
PLANET COLUMNIST 

1. The Steinways —Missed The 
Boat LP 

2. The Leftovers—live, plus all 
their records 

3. The Insubordination Records 
Fest—Baltimore, June 2006 

4. The Pop Punk Message Bored 

5. New York City 

6. Gilman Street’s 20th anniversa¬ 
ry—December 31, 1986-2006 

7. Santiago— Rosenberg's After 
Dark LP 

8. My new big toe—surgical im¬ 
plant 

9. King Dork —novel by Frank Port- 
man 

10. The Zatopeks—live, recorded, 
everything 


minority tongue in it’s own 
land, Scottish Gaelic is very 
much alive. However, much 
of native Gaelic culture in in¬ 
ward looking and conservative. 
There is very little new mate¬ 
rial written in the language, 
with new bands recycling old 
songs again and again. Being 
punk in Gaelic is a statement 
and in the wider context, using 
a minority language is a state¬ 
ment. Even, in the punk world 
there is very little linguistic 
diversity. Politics aside, this 
is probably the most complete 
and musically accomplished 
of all Oi Polloi’s releases. In a 
similar vein, we’ve had the re¬ 
lease of the Gaidhlig Na Lasair 
CD featuring 5, mostly punk 
bands, singing in Gaelic. And 
finally the ancient Gaelic/Pic- 
tish name for Scotland, Alba’, 
was printed on our national 
football strip for the first time. 


TOP 10 THINGS PEOPLE 
SAID TO ME THAT WERE 
LAME AND THEY DIDN’T 
REALIZE IT 


BY PAT CASTALDO, BUYOLYMPIA.COM 

1. That’s actually a good idea. 

2. We only have refried 
beans. 

3. Now you’re thinking. 

4. We’re going to have 
an awesome live Jazz 
band at the party. 

5. Thanks for the add. 

6. See ya later. 

7. If you don’t mind, you 
can do it. 

8. We have pink lemonade. 

9. Knock , Knock. 

10. We don’t have drip coffee, but I 
can make you an Americano. 



BY SEONAIDH ADAMS, FREELANCE 
WRITER AND GAELIC-MEDIUM 
TEACHER, SCOTLAND 

1. Ar Canan, Ar Ceol, Ar-a-Mach 
CD by Oi Polloi. 

May. Contemporary, origi¬ 
nal and varied new punk rock 
written and sung in the an¬ 
cient indigenous language 
of Scotland. Despite being a 


World Cup 2006 

June/July, Germany. A fes¬ 
tival of crass consumerism 
with companies falling over 
themselves to be the ‘official’ 
sponsor of every¬ 
thing from the 
football studs 
to the toilet 
paper. On the 
other hand, 
hundreds of 
thousands of 
fans from all 
over the world 
celebrating to¬ 
gether in a country 
that’s dealing success¬ 
fully with a heavy historical 
burden. 

, ‘Bonfire of the Brands’ 
September, London. The 
name says it all really. Brands 
built on third world sweatshop 
labour that fuel our desires 
for an identity. Ironically, the 
UK’s consumers are collec¬ 
tively f^OOm in debt but still 
lag behind El Salvador in the 
world “happiness” league table. 

Banksy’s Paris Hilton stunt. 

Crass-inspired guerrilla artist 
takes a break from stencil¬ 
ing on walls and subverting 


oil paintings to flood record 
stores with fake Paris Hilton 
CDs. CD is bought, remixed 
by DJ, cover is copied and doc¬ 
tored with slogans and hun¬ 
dreds of copies redistributed 
nationally. Genius. 

5. Hugo Chavez’s speech to the UN. 

One of Latin America’s thorns 
in Bush’s side claimed that 
Bush wished to “preserve the 
current pattern of domina¬ 
tion, exploitation, and pillage 
of the peoples of the world.” 

He also referred to Bush as 
“Satan.” 

6. Island of Punk festival, August, 
Scotland. 

A D.I.Y. success story on Cra- 
mond Island, on the outskirts 
of Edinburgh. 300 punks, 
donations only, one generator, 
home-made stage, Taiwan¬ 
ese television crew and bands 
such as Oi Polloi, Jockney Re¬ 
jects and In Decades Decline. 
D.I.Y. not Rupert Murdoch’s 
MySpace! 

7. The Day the Country Died—A 
History of Anarcho-Punk 1980- 
1984 book by Ian Glasper. 

October. Following the Burning 
Britain book on ’80s punk the 
in the UK, we have a docu¬ 
mentary of the same period’s 
anarcho scene. It may not have 
changed the world but it did 
inspire many individuals to 
positive action for peace, for 
animal rights and against fas¬ 
cism. A fascinating look at 
the idealism and philosophy 
of‘anarcho-punk’ includ¬ 
ing AOA, Alternative and Oi 
Polloi from Scotland and such 
household names as Crass, the 
Subhumans, The Mob, Rudi¬ 
mentary Peni, Icons of Filth, 
Zounds and the Apostles. 

8. The Wind That Shook The Barley 
film by Ken Loach, 

July. Honest account of Eng¬ 
lish imperialism in 1920s 
Ireland and the formation of 
the Irish Republican Army as 
a response to it. Black and Tan 
thugs terrorise a largely rural 
population and Irish peasants 
take up arms against an em¬ 
pire. Gritty and non-roman¬ 


tic, the film studies the con¬ 
tradictions on both sides and 
the sadness of the civil war that 
followed Ireland’s partial free¬ 
dom from English rule. 

9. Execution of a Teenage Girl Tele¬ 
vision documentary by BBC TV, 

August. A brave and stomach- 
churning account of Iran’s Is¬ 
lamic system of Sharia Law. A 
16-year-old girl is raped then 
is charged with “crimes against 
chastity.” She is then publicly 
hung from a crane. A warn¬ 
ing that whatever Israel’s war 
crimes in the region, simply 
supporting ‘the enemy of my 
enemy’ is not always a morally 
sound option. Religious fas¬ 
cism is not an answer. 

10. Documentaries that Changed 
the World —The John Pilger Collec¬ 
tion DVD. 

October. Collection of four of 
John Pilger’s award-winning 
and groundbreaking docu¬ 
mentaries going back to his 
observations of mutinying US 
conscripts in Vietnam. Chal¬ 
lenging and honest accounts 
from a man who’s contribu¬ 
tions to journalism are as im¬ 
portant as those of Chomsky’s 
to political philosophy. 


TOP 10 CUSS WORDS 


BY NADINE NAKANISHI, PUNK 
PLANET DESIGNER AND 
ILLUSTRATOR 

1. fuckstick 

2. shitwig 

3. ratprick 

4. dumpsters 

5. that’s bushshit 

6. flappdoop 

7. hangmuffler 

8. snagrag 

9. shitface 

10. artifuck 


IN 2006 ... 


BY ERIC NAKAMURA, GIANT ROBOT 

1. Everyone who was part of the 
“everyone can be a DJ” movement 
sold their gear off. 

2. Some of those people quickly 
became fine artists this year. I 
hope they stick with it. 


74 PUNK PLANET 










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3. Those same people knew some¬ 
one who opened a store or gallery 
or both. 

4. Everyone who made a vinyl toy 
wanted their products sold there. 

5. Everyone who started a “cloth¬ 
ing” company wanted their T-shirts 
sold there too. 

6. All the hype was developed 
through a blog that tried to show 
how cool they are or aren’t. 

7. Everyone became a hipster by 
donning the gear. 

8. They also bought designer 
sneakers (usually Nike Dunks) but 
didn't do any sports. 

9. Limited edi¬ 
tion got tired, 
but kept some 
on a “higher’ 
level than 
others. 

10. The 
means of 
production 
leveled the 
playing field 
for everyone 
to do almost 
anything. It 
was used 
for both 
good and 
bad. We’ll 
see what 
happens in 
2007. 


TOP 10 OF RANDOM THINGS 
AND EVENTS, 2006 

order) 


BY ALEC BOURGEOIS, 

DISCHORD RECORDS 

1. The Punishment of Virtue: Inside 
Afghanistan After the Taliban by 
Sarah Chayes 

2. “Lidia’s Song” by Joe Lally from 
the CD There to Here 

3. Creation Stewardship 

Evangelical environmental¬ 
ists—no kidding! 

4. The Dead Chef (www.thedead- 
chef.blogspot.com/) 

If you speak Italian, you’ll be 
rewarded. 

5. Duos—cut the fat! 

6. All the President’s lies 
They’re all priceless. 

7. The Dada show 


The New Yorker calls it “ju¬ 
venile”—that’s endorsement 
enough! 

8. Connie Rice—Condoleeza’s 
cousin 

9. Azzurri! (World Cup) 

10. Tony Blair 

2 PMs down (Spain, Italy) one 
to go! 


TOP 10 PHOTOS OF 2006 11 
WISH I COULD HAVE MADE 


BY CHRISSY PIPER, 

PHOTOGRAPHER 

1. A portrait of Bush dressed as 
Osama Bin Laden. 

2. A portrait 
of Bush and 
Hussein sitting 
next to one an¬ 
other. 

3. A portrait of 
Bush dressed as 
a clown with a 
big plastic ass. 

4. Bush and 
Blair’s engage¬ 
ment photo (not 
sure who would 
wear the dress in 
that one). 

5. Bush looking 
at himself in the 
mirror when he 
wakes up in the 
morning. 

6. Schwarzenegger being bit in the 
ass by a border patrol dog. 

7. Brooke Shields beating the shit 
out of Tom Cruise. 

8. The Zapatistas marching into 
Mexico City. 

9. Billy Bragg because I’ve always 
wanted to photograph him. 

10. Terry Gross because I think she 
is cool. 


TOP 10 JOKES ABOUT IH 
FASHION AND MONSTERS 


BY DEREK MCCORMACK, NOVELIST 

1. What size dress did the spiritual¬ 
ist wear? 

Medium 

2. What make-up do vampires love? 

Mascary 

3. What kind of shoes do vampires 
wear? 


Bat-ent leather. 

4. What kind of feathers does a 
vampire wear? 

Macaw-bre. 

5. Which designer does Dracula hate? 

Christian Lacroix. 

6. Who sewed the witch’s dress? 

A screamstress. 

7. Who sewed the vampire’s cape? 
Tailor from the Crypt. 

8. Who sewed the monster’s gown? 

Couturier from the Black 
Lagoon. 

9. Who was the ghosts’s favourite 
couturier? 

Boo-lenciaga. 

10. Where can you see a horrible 
monster? 

In the mirror. 


TOP 10 THINGS THAT MADE 
2006 WAY BETTER 

THAN 2005 


BY CARRIE WESTON, DJ WLUW FM 
CHICAGO 

1. None of my friends or family 
died. Unlike 2005, which was a 
wholesale slaughter. 

2. We are one year closer to not 
having Bush in office. 

2a. The Republican scandals are 
really fun to watch. 

3. Da Bears. 

4. All the mind-blowing music festi¬ 
vals. All Tomorrow’s Parties, Pitch- 
fork, Touch and Go/Hideout Fest. 

So much good music, so many 
tears of joy. 

5. Doubling our household cat pop¬ 
ulation. The joy of Speedball and 
Spider joining the clan outweighs 
the litter issues. 

6. WLUW, a non-profit community 
radio station I work for in Chicago, 
finally (barely) became self-sufficient 
thanks to our awesome listeners. 

7. My mom moved to Chicago. 

8. Discovering Project Runway. I 
know, I know. But there’s some¬ 
thing great about a reality show 
where people have to be creative 
and skilled under deadline, and 
don’t just have to eat a bucket of 
worms. 

9. I finally got comfortable with my 
body and all its flaws. 



10. Falling into the vortex of You¬ 
Tube. All the Fall videos I can han¬ 
dle, weird Japanese game shows, 
and the Daily Show posted for free. 

I don’t have cable. This is my cable. 


TOP lO WORST THINGS 
ABOUT 2006 (no order) 


BY DAVE HOFER, PUNK PLANET 
REVIEWS EDITOR 

1. Still no new clipse album 

(as of this writing, it’s release 
date is December I2th, 2006). 

2. Not grilling as much as last year. 

3. Love Monkey cancelled . . . twice. 

4. Monday Night Raw kind of suck¬ 
ing live. 

5. Not being able to afford all of 
the records I want. 

6. New condos in my neighborhood. 

7. Not having the time or chops to 
join Lair of the Minotaur. 

8. That big, fat, white power guy at 
all of the metal shows. 

9. Missing Clipse live. 

10. The stupid fucking House of 
Blues telling me that I couldn’t 
bring my Male Urban Warrior Bag 
with all of my shit in it into the 
Lawrence Arms show, but that they 
were allowing women with purses 
in without question, and then 
having to ask the guitar player of 
the Lawrence Arms (who I barely 
know), if I could stash my bag in 
their van during said show. Talk 
about uncomfortable. 


TOP 10 REASONS THE ART 
DUMP CAN’T AGREE ON A i 
TOP 10 LIST ■ B ^hbJ 


BY THE GIRL SKATEBOARDS 
ART DUMP 

1. “It’s impossible to narrow such 
a huge array of possibilities to just 
10. Plus, I vacillate so much from 
day to day that I can’t commit to a 
list.”—Andy Jenkins 

2. “Because I’m busy iChatting 
with Kelly Bird all day long.” 

—Andy Mueller 

3. “We’re not all on the same page 
about goats and their mandatory 
inclusion on any list, ever.” 

—Tony Larson 

3.5. “We’re not all on the same 
page about strippers and their man¬ 
datory inclusion on all Top 10 lists, 
ever.” —Lardog 


76 PUNK PLANET 








4. “Because I don’t give a shit." 

—Jeremy Carnahan 

5. “I don’t feel comfortable making 
a decision about anything unless 
I’m within five miles of a meth lab, 
no closer than twp miles to my 
nearest neighbor, and holding a can 
of Natural Light.”—Eric Anthony 

6. “Still do not comprehend the use 
of ‘brody; as a grammatically cor¬ 
rect expression in Southern Califor¬ 
nia .. . and doubt I ever will.” 

—Michael Coleman 

7. “Because I am Japanese and 
everyone else is American.” [default 
answer to all Art Dump issues] 

—Misato Suzuki 

8. “Contact with anyone besides 
Kelly Bird is prohibited.” [via email 
bouce-back notice] —Chris Waycott 

9. ” Because illegal immigrants are 
not allowed to vote.” 

—Christian Morin 

10. “Because 9.5 entries is far 
more punk than 10” 

—The Art Dump 


TOP 10 FOR 2006, IN I 
SEVERAL WAYS & NO 
PARTICULAR ORDER | 


BY MAIREAD CASE, PUNK PLANET 
REVIEWER 

10. Sleater-Kinney, doing their 
own soundcheck even though it’s 
their next-to-next-to-last show at 
Lollapalooza. Honorable mention 
to uberdude in hemp choker and 
muscle shirt, screaming, with¬ 
out irony, for “Little Babies! Little 
Baaaa-aaabies!” 

9. South Bend, Indiana, seven de¬ 
grees and cold wind. I have purple 
hair and am staring at my neigh¬ 
bor’s newest lawn display, which 
features a bigger-than-life Jesus, 
crucified, only he’s flanked by 
American flags instead of robbers. 

I do not know if Jesus is talking to 
me or not, but I’m getting hungry. 
8. Blueberry Muffin #85: The man 
at Kim’s Kitchen in Evanston, Il¬ 
linois, who said that he and his 
boyfriend bought an aquarium for 
the bedroom, because when it gets 
cold there is nothing like glass and 
light and fish. 

7. The time to stop Paxil. For a 
while, it wasn't time, and it is im¬ 
portant to know the difference. I 


dreamed about cats igniting and 
disjointed rabbits, woke up scream¬ 
ing—this happens for a while, and 
then it stops. You’ll be OK. 

6. Blueberry Muffin #12: The 
woman at Studebagels in South 
Bend whose son wanted to be 
“beat up” for Halloween. It was 
hard, she said, to give him black 
eyes and a neck gash, even though 
it was facepaint. 

5. Matmos, who sing about Solanis 
and use roses for percussion. Glenn 
Kotche, who found pitch with cica¬ 
das. Haruko Nishimura, giving birth 
to a bird. Matt Sullivan, getting old 
black men paid. The life raft that 
is the Gossip, and the number of 
times we pounded “Yr Mangled 
Heart” into our breastbones. 

4. Sober sex is good sex, too. 

3. Blueberry Muffin #37: The 
doughnut sculpture at Seattle's 
Discovery Park, where all the Fili¬ 
pino/a drag queens used to smoke. 
Eleni made a box from scratch. It 
rained, and the apple wine gave us 
a stomach ache. 

2. 2:06 AM, sometime in August. 
You were moving next-day, so we 
stayed awake, boxing things, and 
scrubbing refrigerator drawers, 
then stopping for a last time on the 
swings. Pork blood and cherry pop- 
sicles drip the same kind of red, and 
I am vegetarian, but it didn’t matter. 

1. First night in Chicago, when 
I suddenly felt young and ate all 
bright food: orange Tootsie Roll 
pops, a sandwich with American 
cheese and mustard and toma¬ 
toes. We walked down a quiet 
street, and he talked about Jandek, 
showed me the narthex covered in 
chipped tile and stars and apostolic 
mosaic. I still do not know if Jesus 
is talking to me, but sometimes I 
am less hungry. 


TOP 10 REASONS WHY WE 
WON’T SIGN YOUR BAND ■ 


BY TOMMY CAMARO, CEO OF 

HEWHOCORRUPTS INC. 

1. You do not have over 100,000 
friends on MySpace. 

2. The credit check we ran on your 
band came back unfavorable. 

3. When we referred to your band as 
an asset you gave us a funny look. 

4. You did not agree with our policy 


of having to produce 10 records in 
two years. 

5. You thought us asking you to 
tour 363 days out of the year was 
too demanding. 

6. You weren’t gracious when we 
told you you didn’t have to play a 
show on Christmas or New Years. 

7. When we asked you for your 
Myspace address you gave us the 
address to your house. 

8. One of your street team mem¬ 
bers failed our third party back¬ 
ground check. 

9. You were turned off when we 
brought up having you pose nude 
for our annual label calendar. 

10. You took too many free mints 
while leaving our office. 


CHUCK DUKOWSKI’S TOP ■ 
10 QUOTES AND CONCEPTS 
(AKA CHUCK DUKOWSKI’S | 
TOP 10,10 ON TOP, 10 TOP J 
IDEAS AND QUOTES OFF J 
THE TOP OF MY HEAD FOR I 
THE ’06) 


BY CHUCK DUKOWSKI, 

PUNK LEGEND 

1. The Revolution sucks. 

I was a fervent believer in rev¬ 
olution, but when I shifted my 
perspective from “the group” 
to the individual I started to 
see what bullshit it was. All 
regular people suffer when 
there is violent change. And 
we are, every one of us, regular 
people. The revolution makes 
a bunch of people die and suf¬ 
fer to be robbed and raped by 
a new group of leaders. Then 
they have to start over building 
their lives. Non-violent change 
is the only answer. Real change 
ain’t no quick fix. Violent rev¬ 
olution is the crack of change. 
Real change is not about lead¬ 
ers or politics. It’s about you 
and me. It’s on the ground. 

2. We hold these truths to be self- 
evident: Nice is good. Mean is bad. 

It’s self-evident. Nice is un¬ 
derrated and it’s the answer. 

3. In these times of Victims and 
Executioners it is the job of think¬ 
ing people to not be on the side of 
the executioner. 

Albert Camus said this and it 
is as important today as it was 
in his time. 


4. Maybe Partying Will Help? 

This is the title of a Minute- 
men song by D Boon. Partying 
does help. Getting some com¬ 
munity and good feeling go¬ 
ing contributes to the positive 
forces in humanity. It helps 
break down the distrust and 
alienation that provide the 
fertile soil that oppression and 
hatred need to prosper. Let’s 
get together! 

5. Remember the Maine. 

The US government blew up 
its own ship, the Maine, and 
blamed it on the Spanish. 

They used the Maine explo¬ 
sion, in which many, many 
soldiers died, as a pretext for 
the massive land grab that was 
the Spanish-American War. 
Our nation has a history of war 
under manufactured pretens¬ 
es. How many died for greed 
then? How about now? 


6. “Not necessarily the only way to 
navigate this open field.” 

This is a lyric from The Evens 
first album. Ian Mackaye and 
Amy Farina are on target 
again. Life’s doors are closed 
only when you let them be. 
Make your own path and re¬ 
spect the unique beauty of ev¬ 
eryone else’s. 

7. The “real world” is a lie. 

Have you ever noticed that 
when people talk about “the 
real world” it’s always some¬ 
thing bad? As though only 
mean things were real? I’ve 
noticed this “real world” lie is 
most often directed at kids. As 
in “when you get out in the real 
world people won’t be so for¬ 
giving.” Screw that. In my “real 



P U N K P L A N E T 77 



world” I get to be nice and 
people are nice to me. 

8. All that anybody knows are the 
fruits of what they sow. 

I realized that the way one 
thinks about and acts in the 
world comes back at them. If you 
think people are fundamen¬ 
tally evil you’ll find a way to see 
the world that reinforces that. 
Open your eyes to the selfless¬ 
ness and love of everyday peo¬ 
ple. Sow some seeds of good, of 
beauty, of creation, of love! 

9. We are change. Everything we 
do matters. 

The universe is dynamic. 
Change just is. So then the 
nature of that change is the 
all-important thing. We need 
to try to make everything we do 
a part of the solution instead of 
a part of the problem. 

10. The Price of Paradise is stained 
with blood /All pawns and puppets of 
flesh and bone/ Will die for their lead¬ 
ers far from home. /These are men 
who die very young/ afraid to see that 
their cause is unjust. /Why couldn’t 
they live for life? / Not die to lie. 

D Boon sang this on the Minute- 
men’s 3 Why Tie. We love you D. We 
could use your voice nowadays. 

(11. iSi, Se Puede!! 

From the immigration rights 
marches that shut down large 
parts of LA a couple of times 
this year. The government 
can’t own us.) 


TOP 10 REASONS TO LAY 
ON THE COUCH 


BY JESSE REKLAW, COMICS ARTIST 

10. I’m re-re-re-re-reading Catcher 

in the Rye 

9. Snoooooore 

8. It works for the cat 

7. Those Love and Rockets books 

were a steal on Craigslist 

6. Watchin’ that spider 

5. The heating pad just got warm 

4. Kieslowski’s Decalogue is TV for 

geniuses 

3. Just a minute, OK? 

2. Designing polyspatial environ¬ 
ments in my head 

1. Fuck the world 


MY TOP 10 OF 2006 


BY ZAK EINSTEIN, THICK RECORDS 

1. Riot Fest 2006 with Naked Ray- 
gun and The Blue Meanies 

2. Jackass 2 

3. Model Actress EP (Phil¬ 
lips, Mead, Monostereo, + Yow, 
Schmersal, etc.) 

4. Tool— 10,000 Days 

5. Power Chord Academy summer 
sessions 

6. Eagles Of Death Metal— Death 
By Sexy 

7. Shanna Kiel & Black Fur—Orphan 

8. Los Punkinhedz (Mike 
Watt, Money Mark, 

John Wicks) 9/7 at 
Spaceland in LA 

9. Band Of 
Horses 

10. The 2006 
Chicago Bears 


TOP 10 THINGS I’VE SEEN 
IN NIIGATA CITY, JAPAN ■ 


BY JEN PAPPAS, FREELANCE 
WRITER, LANGUAGE INSTRUCTOR 

1. A choir of children rehearsing 
in the shallow, green meadow of 
Hakusan Park at lunchtime. Each 
child in matching blue pinafores, 
harmonizing for an audience of one. 

2. Pre-packaged hot-dog buns filled 
with rice at the local 7-11. 

3. The woman wearing stilettos and 
holding an umbrella, riding her bi¬ 
cycle through the rainy streets. 

4. The giant cicada clinging to a 
tree, squirting it’s only venom at 
me in self-defense while I franti¬ 
cally tried to sketch it one evening 
shortly before sunset. 

5. The small, pig-tailed girl riding 
her unicycle in some sort of hectic 
circle near the Niigata City Library. 

6. The Sea of Japan rising up sud¬ 
denly as I neared the crest of a 
hill. Blue, plain, completely calm, 
bunkered by jetties and families in 
one-piece bathing suits. 

7. The procession of Japanese men 
and women in traditional costume, 
hefting a miniature shrine through 
the streets atop their shoulders. Red 
with exertion, chanting in tongues. 

8. The large, wooden cribs lining 
the walls of the City Office Build¬ 
ing, waiting for children. 


9. The smell of hot chestnuts for 
sale at the Annual Toyosaka Festival. 

10. The first time I sat on the bank 
of the Shinano River, realizing that 
now, my suns will set in the east. 


MY TOP 10 HEROES OF 2006 


BY HEATHER WHINNA, FILMMAKER, 
INDEPENDENT PROMOTER 

1. Ann Richards 

Best quote ever “After all, Gin¬ 
ger Rogers did everything that 
Fred Astaire did. She just did it 
backwards and in high heels” 

2. John Peel 

Introduced so many of us to 
music for nearly 40 years 

3. Corey Rusk 

Continues to put out excel¬ 
lent records the same way he 
did 25 years ago 

4. Mukhtaran Bibi 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ 
Mukhtaran_Bibi 

5. Michael Dahlquist 

the most happy-go-lucky guy I 
ever knew 

6. Russ Feingold 

www.archipelago.org/vol6-2/ 

feingold.htm 

7. Etta Baker 

www. npr. or g/templates/story/ 

story.php?storyld = 4536802 

8. Zainab Salbi 

founder of Women 
For Women Inter¬ 
national 

9. Michelle Obama 

http://obama. 
senate.gov/ 

news/051224-qa_with_ 

michelle_obama/index. 
html 

10. Charles E Whinna IV 

My feminist father 


TOP 10 TOP 10 LISTS MADE 

of 2006 


BY KEVIN DUNEMAN, 

THE BIRD MACHINE BUSINESS 
MANAGER, FREELANCE DRUMMER 

10. Top 10 things I slept thru be¬ 
cause I couldn’t get up in the morn¬ 
ing because it was only, like, the 
best summer ever. Except for all 
that war and death and disease and 


treachery and foolish spending and 
affectless bending of reason. 

9. 10 top hotels in the New Eng¬ 
land corridor that rhyme with 
“strife and hum” 

8. Top 10 “moments” from the void 

7. 10 top tortas on the Northside 
of Chicago 

6. Top 10 reasons to include raw 
garlic in every meal 

5. Top 10 reasons the world should 
go metric 

4. 10 top pop physicists 

3. Top 10 reasons why the music 
died and was therefore immedi¬ 
ately revived 

2. Top 10 truly hilarious things John 
Dawson’s beyond John Dawson said 
and how well they were timed 
1. Top 10 number l’s from ail my top 
10 lists from 2006, and why they al¬ 
ways end up being the same thing 


TOP 10 TRENDS I TRIED SO 
HARD TO RESIST IN 2006. I 
FAILED 


BY JANE FELTES, PRODUCER, THIS 
AMERICAN LIFE 

10. Moving to New York City 

9. Skinny Jeans 

8. Bangs 

7. Giant purse 

6. Rick Ross 

5. Giant sunglasses 


4. A Marc Jacobs dress . . . 

OK, not really Marc Jacobs, 
it’s Marc by Marc Jacobs. From 
a warehouse sale. Whatever! 

It’s cute and makes me look all 
flat-chested. Shut up. 

3. Carrying around a tiny exotic 
furry animal. 

He’s from Secaucus, NT. Ooh 
la la . . . 

2. Leggins [sic] 

1. Gun pendants 




78 PUNK PLANET 








TOP 10 FAVORITE THINGS I 
I LEARNED ABOUT MYSELF 
AND/OR THE W ORLD IN j 

2006 (no order) hhm 


BY ROB MILLER, CO-OWNER/CO- 
FOUNDER BLOODSHOT RECORDS, 
CHICAGO IL 

1. I finally found my magic potion, 
my sine qua non for making airline 
travel less horrifying 

2 valium, one Ambien, and 
three pints of beer in the 
terminal ten minutes before 
boarding. Huzzah! Bring on 
the turbulence!! 

2. After an hour of observing from 
a bench in the somewhat under¬ 
whelming Gerald R Ford Presiden¬ 
tial Library in Grand Rapids Ml, 
there is only one artifact that every¬ 
one stops to look at. 


monal frenzies at Ravinia this 
summer. 

4. My favorite word of the year 
(I came across it reading “Moby 
Dick”): ambergris. 

It is the unctuous substance 
formed around the undigested 
beaks of squids in the lower in¬ 
testines of sperm whales. It was 
used in the women’s cosmet¬ 
ics industry as a fixative agent. 
Who thought that might work? 
God Bless American ingenuity! 

5. Chicago has reached critical 
mass in terms of street fairs. 

Enough. No more. The warm, 
over-priced beer in plastic 
cups doth no longer ease the 
pain of seeing so many guys in 
mandals (male-sandals) that 
I usually go to scummy rock 


clubs to get away from. The 
novelty of seeing a good band 
in the daytime, outdoors, has 
lost its appeal. 

6. The German manufacturer of the 
anti-graffiti coating used on Berlin’s 
Holocaust memorial is the same 
company that manufactured the 
Zyklon B used in the gas chambers. 

The irony of multinational 
corporate depravity continues 
to astound. 

7. I learned how to downhill ski. 

Several years ago I got con¬ 
vinced by some Portland, OR 
new age, hippie trash of the 
superiority of snowboarding. 
After never getting the hang of 
it—being told I just had to wait 
for “the chill,” I gave downhill 
a try and took to it like a dog to 
a hydrant. Excelsior!! Bring on 
the winter! 

8. No 
matter 
how long 
I do this, 
a musician 
will always 
find a way to 
surprise me 
with that spe¬ 
cial brand of 
cluelessness. 

To wit, when 
asked by an un¬ 
named guitarist 
how things were 
in “the biz,” I replied by say¬ 
ing that I felt like Sisyphus a 
lot of time. At this, he looked 
thoughtfully at me, and said, 
swear to god, “yeah, I hear ya, 
I’ve heard that’s a bad STD, 
but I never had it.” 

9. I read East of Eden for the first 
time and Steinbeck may have top¬ 
pled Twain from his long-standing 
position as my favorite author. 

Perhaps, just perhaps, that my 
reactions to social outrages 
and disparity are growing 
from glib and snide satire to 
action and solutions. Maybe I 
am finally growing up. Prob¬ 
ably not. 

10. Americans will eat anything if 
you provide them a dipping sauce. 

It’s been an edifyingyear. 



generations of ladies into hor- 



BY HEATHER WHINNA, FILMMAKER, 
INDEPENDENT PROMOTER 

1. Kim Deal & Kelley Deal 

For being excellent, confident 
role models without ghettoiz¬ 
ing themselves 

2. The Miller/Tweedy family 

The most financially generous 
family I know 

3. Martha Plimpton 

Unbelievably honorable and 
continues to make great art 
with such ease 

4. Stephen Colbert 

Due to his White House Cor¬ 
respondents’ Dinner speech 

5. Steve Albini 

After 25 years possibly the 
only “producer” who has made 
several multi-platinum sell¬ 
ing records and refuses to take 
royalties 

6. Fred Rogers 

Who continues via re-runs to 
introduce racial understand¬ 
ing to children 

7. Timothy Duffy 

Founder of the Music Maker 
Relief Foundation 

8. Andrew Alexander 

Owner of The Second City 
who’s generosity is unparallel 

9. Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theatre 

They run a theatre based on 
the Rusk/MacKaye philosophy 

10. Ian MacKaye 

Performs & runs a record label 
on the same honorable system 
he started 26 years ago 


TOP 10 NUMBERS BETWEEN 
ONE AND 10 


BY MIKE NOVAK, PUNK PLANET 
DESIGNER 

10. 10 
9. 9 
8 . 8 

7. 6 
6. 5 
5. 3 
4. 4 

3. 7 

2 . 1 

1 . 2 



TOP 10 STUPID/ 
DISTURBING/OFFENSIVE 
SEX PRODUCTS OF 2006 I 


BY SEARAH DEYSACH, PUNK 
PLANET SEX COLUMNIST, OWNER 
OF THE FEMINIST SEX SHOP EARLY 
TO BED 

1. Semen-Flavored Lube called Jizz 

2. Luscious Legs leg-shaped vibrator 

3. One-use disposable vibrators 

4. One-use disposable masturba¬ 
tion sleeves 

5. Crab-shaped vibe that clips onto 
the labia 

6. Dissolving strips that numb your 
throat so someone can jam their 
cock down it 

7. Apple martini flavored lube 

8. Bean-shaped anal beads 

9. Vibrator that speaks French 

10. “Uncle Stevie’s Fucking Vibe” 
(shaped like a hand giving the finger) 


TOP 10 LINES 1 WROTE 
AS A 22-YEAR-OLD m 

1 

PORNOGRAPHER THAI 
HINDSIGHT, ARE UTTEI 

r, in 

RLY 

DISTURBING g 



BY JOSHUA M. BERNSTEIN, PUNK 
PLANET CONTRIBUTOR 

1. She drank enough sperm to feed 
Luxembourg for a week. 

2. Jason rode his dad’s red ass like 
a cowboy at the last roundup. 

3. Shove your egg roll in my combi¬ 
nation box, soldier. 

4. Her legs were like a 7-Eleven: 
always open. 

5. I was Columbus exploring her 
virgin body, deeply planting my flag 
where it belonged. 

6. Gorillas had nothing on Jenny’s 
hairy snatch. 

7. Their sex was like monsoon sea¬ 
son: long, wet and unspeakably filthy. 

8. Mike’s penis was as crooked as 
San Francisco’s Lombard Street. 

9. Jimmy blasted off with enough 
force to send Neil Armstrong back 
to the moon. 

10. I like eating my mom’s pussy 
better than her homemade apple pie. 


PUNK PLANET 79 





TOP 10 THINGS PUNK Hi 
ROCK COULD (PE) LEARN 
FROM THE OPEN SOURCE 
SOFTWARE MOVEMENT ■ 


BY DANIEL SINKER, PUNK PLANET 

FOUNDER AND PUBLISHER 

In relaunching PunkPlanet. 
com this year, I dove head-first 
into the Open Source Software 
Movement—a growing legion 
of programmers and devel¬ 
opers committed to creating 
shared software free to down¬ 
load and powerful as all hell. 
It’s a concept cribbed straight 
out of punk rock. In this day 
and age of big-budget punk, 
Open Source Software offers a 
lot of object lessons in how to 
do things right (once again). 

1. There’s power in numbers. 

Stop going it alone. Real¬ 
ize that there are other people 
out there who can help pick up 
where you leave off. It’s hard to 
take on a project as big as run¬ 
ning a show space or a zine by 
yourself. Ask for help. 

2. Stop hording your knowledge. 

If you’ve learned something, 
share what you know with those 
who don’t. We don’t need to 
reinvent the wheel every time 
someone wants to start a record 
label. Remember the Simple 
Machines flyer about starting a 
label? We need that back again. 

3. Don’t be afraid of updates. 

With how people listen to mu¬ 
sic undergoing a massive rein¬ 
vention, I find more and more 
people in the underground 
clinging to the physicality 
of records and CDs. They’re 
beautiful, yes, but they’re go¬ 
ing away. Historically, we’re at 
about “ways of listening to mu¬ 
sic v6-3” Don’t be afraid of 7-0. 

4. Share and share alike 

This leads from but seems 
like it’s worth its own line. 
Sharing knowledge is a two- 
way street. Once you’ve figured 
something out, it’s on you to 
pass that information along. 

5. Communities are powerful 

Maybe this seems obvious in 
this day and age of 5000-name 
“friends” lists on MySpace, but 
those aren’t real communities, 


they’re just lists. Why not start 
forming communities of label 
owners? Of touring bands? 
This can be localized, or elec¬ 
tronic. Either way, they’re 
communities that would learn 
and influence each other (Gig- 
Posters.com is a perfect ex¬ 
ample of a working community 
like this). 

6. Be agile 

Part of why Open Source has 
emerged as something other 
than a hobby for braniacs is 
because the lumbering gi¬ 
ants of software—the Micro- 
softs etc—can no longer adapt 
quickly enough to new things. 
Remember when punk was 
able to adapt so quickly that it 
was basically able to create new 
things from whole cloth? Let’s 
go back to that. 

7. Don’t worry about scaling until 
you need to 

We’ve reached a point in the 
underground where seemingly 
every band burdens them¬ 
selves with a publicist, a book¬ 
ing agent, a label and a crate’s 
worth of press releases before 
they’ve even played a show. 
That’s a burden on everyone 
involved. Don’t worry about 
having the trappings of larger 
bands until you become those 
larger bands (and even then, 
question whether you need 
them anyway). 

8. There’s room for everyone 

Getting stuck in a rut of con¬ 
cepts and tightly hewn-genres 
is never good for any culture 
(just look at the hippies, folks). 
Allowing new ideas in is the 
only way to continue to grow 
punk rock. New ideas—new 
music, new art, new writing, 
new whatever—beget new ideas. 
Closing yourself off from them 
promises that you’ll be stuck 
in a singular moment in time 
forever. 

9. Borrowing ideas is different than 
stealing them 

Ideas, when put out there, are 
meant to be borrowed, re¬ 
written, turned on their head, 
improved upon, and re-in- 
jected into the community for 


further re-use. This magazine 
is a perfect example of taking 
a pre-existing template and 
turning it into something new, 
and something others can grow 
their ideas from. 

10. Money isn’t everything. 

Tattoo that one backwards 
on your forehead so you see 
it every morning when you’re 
brushing your teeth. Sure, 
projects cost money, and ev¬ 
eryone would love to not work 
their shit job, but we’re long 
past those requirements when 
record labels buy Hummers to 
do their promotion and bands 
are signed solely for their in¬ 
come potential. 


TOP 10 WIKIPEDIA ENTRIES 

for 2006 


BY JON RESH, DESIGNER/WRITER 

1. “Burgertime” 

2. “Felching” 

3. “Inherently funny word” 

4. “Gay Fuel” 

5. “Wife carrying” \ 

6. “Ass antlers” 

7. “Stinky tofu” 

8. “List of notable psychedelic self¬ 
experimenters” 

9. “Goregrind” 

10. “Sonny The Cuckoo Bird” 



BY DOUGLAS WOLK, FREELANCE 
WRITER 

1. Diesel Sweeties (www.diesels- 
weeties.com) 

The best daily comic strip on 
the Internet. 

2. Chris’s Invincible Super-Blog 
(the-isb.blogspot.com) 

Unbelievably funny analysis of 
old superhero comics. 

3. Destination Out (destination- 
out.com) 

A real education in free and 
experimental jazz. 

4. Cliptip (cliptip.blogspot.com) 

A curated link site for music 
videos—and not generally lo-fi 
YouTube videos, either. 

5. Jog—The Blog (joglikescomics. 
blogspot.com) 


Superbly written comics re¬ 
views. 

6. Moistworks (www.moistworks.com) 

The highest hit-to-miss ratio 
of any active audio-blog. 

7. nighttime // anytime (it’s allright) 
(maireadcase.blogspot.com) 

Chicago writer Mairead Case’s 
poetic, incisive personal blog. 

8. WorldChanging (www.world- 
changing.com) 

Futurism, environmentalism 
and smart, practical think¬ 
ing about how to improve the 
future. 

9. The Dylan Pool (pool.dylantree. 
com) 

A betting pool based on what 
songs Bob Dylan is going to 
play onstage on any given night. 

10. Vegan Lunch Box (veganlunch- 
box.blogspot.com) 

Mostly defunct but fascinating 
document of the extraordinary 
lunches one woman packed for 
her son. 


TOP 10 NONSENSICAL H 
SPAM SUBJECT HEADERS 
I RECEIVED IN MY EMAIL ■ 
INBOX IN 2006 hhJ 


BY JON RESH, DESIGNER/WRITER 

1. Hi, oyster farmer 

2. When Human Clones Walk the 
Earth, How Will Society Change? 

3. I know sex isn’t love, but it’s an 
attractive facsimile 

4. Gizzard drool 

5. If your kids are chunky 

6. Don’t Panic. The Earth is just 
being demolished for a hyperspace 
bypass. 

7. Fucking St. Valentine: turgid 

8. Bombastic plunger 

9. Colorful Emo Fantasy! 

10. Apartment nine cocaine scoop 



80 PUNKPLANET 










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T he sex worker activist: an increasingly common character. 
Defying stigma, she fiercely denies that her job(s)—stripper, 
fetish indulger, call-girl—make her a victim. She might look 
to hook up with others doing similar work, “out” or not, to get to¬ 
gether and shoot the shit, recounting the incredible and the hum¬ 
drum. Not just coffee klatches, these groups have the capacity to 
organize over workers’ rights, negotiating the terms of their labor 
in the same way other disenfranchised groups have done. Some, in 
fact, have launched some very successful campaigns (run and see 
the documentary Live Nude Girls Unite!). More often than not, these 
women identify as feminists—many calling the work itself empow¬ 
ering—and are thus motivated and equipped to flip off the frowning 
appraisals of the sex industry that have dominated most feminist 
thought for decades. 

The Story 

During an unexpected jaunt to the South side of Chicago at 2, a.m. 
in a 1977 Lincoln Continental, I got to talking with the girl sit¬ 
ting in my lap. I’d talked to her before, but tonight we were full 
of gin and in close-quarters. She was a nice Jewish girl—educated 
at Cornell, former UFCW organizer and current law school ap¬ 
plicant—who had a lot to say about her crotch. To be accurate, she 
had a lot to say about crotches. Our fellow inhabitants of the Con¬ 
tinental-liquored up, yelling together in hearty, mixed-dialect 
Spanish—hardly seemed to remember we were in the car, let alone 
paid any attention to her blab. Despite her audience of one, she 
enunciated declaration after declaration as if she were standing 
at a lectern. Curly-haired, with heavy-lidded eyes and boisterous 
cleavage, identity politics articulated with goose-step polish, here 
was Lisa*, Sex Worker Activist. 

The Continental kept on roaring down the Dan Ryan. Lisa 
was both didactic and digressive. She free-associated all the way 
from the stylistics of prostitution to bacterial vaginosis. All sex work¬ 
ers, in her estimation, are artists, and all artists worship the same 
god: money. Although —ha ha —there’s no such thing as a starving 
artist stripper. Phone sex, her forte, requires artisans, stylists of 
both the sweet-nothing and the crude word, who craft their calls 
to keep 'em from getting off just long enough to make a decent 
profit. Which you need to afford birth control these days. Which 
should be subsidized by the government. Along with sex ed, so 
someone will tell these girls to stop douching, for fuck’s sake. 

The Continental, its wide girth hugging onto a lane and a half, 
was heading steady down Halsted. Lisa continued delivering her 
wildly swinging primer on the Postmodern Pains of Woman. Tina, 
meanwhile, with one hand on the wheel, the other twirling her hair, 
was expertly negotiating the art of sitting cool at a red light while a car 
full of men and marijuana smoke sat in the parallel lane, humming 
with piqued interest and sexual bravado. She pulled off her Newport 
with slow control, allowing her head to swivel just slightly to glance 
coolly in return, then eyes back to front, concentrating on the light’s 
timer. Ana, older, louder, and in the front passenger seat, was less in¬ 
terested in maintaining such form. She sat twisted in her seat, facing 
Tina and the car, openly mocking. 

“Why those fucking guys staring in at us? Tina, stop showing 
them your chochal ” She threw back her head to emit a succession of 


high-pitched barks. Her dark curls fell back to reveal a drunken 
smear of laughter. Tina laughed roughly, and tossing her hair over 
her shoulder, allowed the men to see her smile. 

Lisa smiled, close-mouthed. Her sexual confidence had been 
overtaken by a distinctly different manifestation being exhib¬ 
ited by Ana and Tina. I could guess at what she was thinking: You 
save that kind of bluster for a hustle, jou don’t just splay it out in the everyday. Lisa 
played lascivious with her politics firmly attached, though she’d 
probably deny it. It’s safe to say that Ana or Tina, pragmatists, 
would agree with a lot of what Lisa had to say about selling sex, but 
they’d shrug it off as something obvious, a concept that doesn’t re¬ 
quire a lot of verbiage to legitimate. But Lisa was often best when 
she’d unpack her ideas like the barrel and muzzle out of a rifle kit, 
locking the instrument together while eyeing her target. 

We all knew each other through work—as healthcare assis¬ 
tants in an abortion clinic. It was necessary for all of us to work 
closely: in emotional capacities, providing advocacy and support 
for women that came to our clinic, explaining the process—ev¬ 
erything that both could and could not really be explained; in 
technical capacities, assisting doctors in procedure, cleaning and 
sterilizing instruments, taking blood samples and vital signs, 
performing ultrasounds; and in menial capacities, disposing of 
biohazardous gunk, scrubbing steel and Formica, managing the 
occasional brawl between a patient and her boyfriend. What this 
work led to in the day after day toil, no matter who you were before 
you started working there, was a sharply honed, fearless, crude 
sense of humor. 

We had developed an insular subculture, made so by the general 
discomfort most outsiders feel when talking about abortion. Most 
seem to imagine that each workday for us is like enacting scenes from 
a tragic opera. To reveal that we spend a lot of the time cackling, guf¬ 
fawing, and sometimes speculating on each other’s pubic hair (Loud 
coworker #1: “I bet Una’s got a retro muff.” Loud coworker “No, 
I bet she trims that shit. Everyone who shops at J-Crew shaves their 
pussy.” Una: “Shut up, bitches. My bush is sacred.”) doesn’t jibe with 
the expectation that we are either feminist earth mothers that sac¬ 
rifice all for the better of humankind or militant footsoldiers, per¬ 
forming our functions with steely determination. 

The truth is that some of us initially resemble the former 
archetype, some belong more to the latter, and that these iden¬ 
tifications slip away completely for most of us after putting in 
enough time with the realities of public health work. Speaking 
openly about sex in every imaginable context becomes the only 
universally shared agenda. And it is most definitely an agenda. 
You can see the way a new employee begins to revel in the new¬ 
found freedom of talking about whether she has removed stray 
hairs found around her areola, or on the immediate after-effects 
of anal penetration. 

The Transition 

Naturally, through the culture of no-holds-barred dirty talk, all 
taboos eventually break down, and you become privy to the most 
intimate details of your coworkers’ lives. And it becomes apparent 
that many of the clinic’s workers, like Lisa, have done other work 
that leads to being more attuned to the smutty quip. Performing 


86 PUNK PLANET 







-oy 

in peep-shows one summer in San Francisco. Getting a second 
phone line for getting people off. Brandishing a riding crop and 
sticking stilettos into willing flesh for $ 90 /hr. Though some offer 
up these stories faster than others, no one chooses to couch their 
dirty talk in qualifications or with any affected modesty. 

This particular abortion clinic on the North side of Chicago 
may be a relatively rare safe space for these kinds of revelations. 
Many of the clinic’s workers would not feel comfortable talking to 
outsiders about their past or present engagement in prostitution 
or other “deviant” or radical sex. Even, or especially, around oth¬ 
ers claiming progressive politics. Some of the women who are both 
clinic workers and former sex workers wouldn’t even call themselves 
feminists. Perversely, these women may feel freer to share their 
experiences than the women that fall in between these camps—the 
self-identifying feminists who have not crossed over into mak¬ 
ing frank discussion or defense of their sex work part of, or at least 
compatible with their feminism. It makes you wonder just how many 
young women—third wavers, postfeminists, et al—actually are or 
have been engaged in sex work on the sly while remaining dedicat¬ 
ed to feminist activism. This question led me to search for women 
willing to talk. 

The Research 

The pornography debate within feminist discourse is a notori¬ 
ously tail-chasing one. Are women necessarily made victims by 
pornography? Well, what constitutes pornography? Should femi¬ 
nists spend their energies protesting the existence of strip clubs 
and prostitution? Or should they participate in harm-reduction 
programs for workers and back programs that aid strippers and 
other sex workers in improving working conditions? In the recent 
past, most of the problems were worked out in separate spheres, 
with feminist writers dialoging with other feminist writers, and 
sex workers working amongst themselves. There were a few nota¬ 
ble exceptions that broke through, like Scarlot Harlot and Annie 
Sprinkle, two sex workers turned performance artists/educators 
who illuminated the hilarious and joyous side of sex work. 

In the late 1980 s and throughout the I99° s * h became clear 
that a crusade started by a few trenchant pioneers had taken hold. 
There was now a concerted effort by the young women doing sex 
work to forcefully rip away the stigma, if only to feel more free to 


be visible in defending workers’ rights and being “out.” Defend¬ 
ing kinky sex and freedom of fantasy, and then repositioning the 
feminist (and Socialist, Marxist, and scores of other modifiers) 
critique of sex work’s economics placed high on the third wavers’ 
agenda—which could now exist within sex worker rights’ groups 
and other sex worker based communities. Sex workers were finally 
speaking for themselves, and though they were still subjects of re¬ 
search and analysis by outsiders, they were beginning to organize 
and offer their own political response. This could incorporate 
feminist influences, and it often did. 

A lot of the writing that began to be anthologized and pub¬ 
lished in mainstream magazines sticks with the personal: the essays 
stretch to offer a phenomenology of a feminist sex worker. Others 
have more specific targets, often criticizing media portrayals of sex 
work as simplistic, at best, and well-meaning programs that offer 
alternatives to prostitution as off-base or in need of reform. 

Dana is a social worker who has quit providing escort ser¬ 
vices in the industry so that she can more fully attend to her cli¬ 
ents, but still works within the sex industry as an activist. She 
has presented at numerous conferences, curated sex worker art 
shows, and is a committed organizer for sex worker’s rights. She 
offered me a paper she wrote in graduate school to read over, in 
which she asserts: 

The majority of what society knows or sees about prostitution 
is the most visible part of the industry—street prostitution. 
Yet, even then, street prostitutes are not given a voice in how 
to define the work they engage in and why . . . Also, most of 
the research on prostitution [is] conducted on street prosti¬ 
tutes, thus ignoring the experiences of other areas of the sex 
industry. 

Dana further articulated common misconceptions in our in¬ 
terview, and described how they affect the kind of conversations 
she gets into with friends and colleagues: “As far as ‘progressive’ 
or ‘liberal-minded’ thinkers, the most pervasive argument I en¬ 
counter is equating trafficking to prostitution. I’ve also been ac¬ 
cused of supporting or advocating for the rape of women because I 
am pro-sex work, that being pro (choice) sex work.” 

Minax, a professional dominant who leads BDSM classes and 
workshops in Chicago, and hosts the S-Work Social, a kind of sex 
worker salon that meets every other month, frankly denies that the 



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two realms are either necessarily linked or mutually exclusive: 

Yes, I consider myself a feminist, and I take this approach to 
my work just as much I would as any other type of work that I 
might be employed in. To me, being a feminist is not about 
being a sex worker, it’s about being a feminist who also hap¬ 
pens to be a sex worker. 

Though Minax pointedly avoids making a direct correla¬ 
tion between sex work as feminist work, she effectively implies 
that there is no reason to believe that identification with feminist 
philosophy would be compromised or made contradictory by one’s 
involvement in prostitution. 

Dana’s use of the term “pro-choice” is notable. Sex worker ac¬ 
tivists like Dana and Lisa are often committed to co-opting this 
feminist language to articulate their experiences within the sex 
industry. This activist mentality has no boundaries. Though some 
women concentrate their activism in sex workers’ rights, many oth¬ 
ers have found that their reproductive rights activism, their public 
health work, their domestic violence advocacy, their scholarly pur¬ 
suits, their unionizing efforts—all led them to a better understand¬ 
ing of sex work, and with understanding came the curiosity to, well, 
get down and dirty themselves. Money was, importantly, not the only 
driving force. This is arguably the strongest point against the clas¬ 
sic feminist characterization of sex work as necessarily exploitative 
because women only get involved because of a patriarchal design 
that limits women’s economic potential. Though the existence of 
abusive, non-consensual trafficking and prostitution continues to 
remind us that these generalizations have come about for a reason, 
sex worker activists are challenged to express the positive aspects of 
sex work under consensual terms: “There’s definitely an alterna¬ 
tive, kinky element to it that attracted me at first and continues to 
attract me,” one states. “[It’s] a way of expressing myself and a way 
of integrating into my work the aspects of my personality that enjoy 
assisting others in their Erotic Journeys. The money is an added 
bonus,” says another. A third agrees: “My initial attraction to the 
work was more curiosity than money. . . I was intrigued by the world 
of sex work and was curious to see if I could do it.” 

Furthermore, a woman having the choice to do sex work car¬ 
ried through into deciding what type of sex work was right for her. 
As most outsider analysis of sex work focuses on the “visible” forms 
of street prostitution and exotic dancing, it ignores the vast number 
of erotic service communities that exist at any given time, which are 
all subject to high variation in clientele, health concerns, contact 
rules, and so on. Though there is a lot of crossover, with some work¬ 
ers doing movies, modeling, and escorting simultaneously, many 
other areas are more particularly suited to certain talents, like pro- 
domme work, fetish indulgence, or burlesque (Interestingly, many 
of these specific kinds of sex workers distance themselves from the 
term “sex work” or “sex worker.”) So one can be intimately associ¬ 
ated with the work, not needing to create distance between them¬ 
selves and the work they choose to do. Audacia Ray describes why 
she decided to no longer be an escort: “I spent a few months as an 
escort and didn’t like it very much—I found I wasn’t good at relat¬ 
ing to my clients, who were mostly lawyers and bankers—two things 
I have no interest in . . . Doing [sensual] massage was more suited 
to my personality.” 


Dana speaks to the difficulties that arise in organizing and com¬ 
munity-building for this ocean of workers: “The escorts don’t neces¬ 
sarily “hang out” with the strippers; the strippers don’t hang with the 
street walkers; the street walkers don’t hang out with the phone sex op¬ 
erators ; etc.. The sex industry is not as cohesive as it should be, in order 
to make some change happen in society and societal perceptions.” 

Minax remarks on another barrier to working together: 
“There are many movements to work toward more camaraderie 
among sex workers, but generally speaking, they are provided for 
people who self-identify as sex workers.” [Italics mine.] 

Community building seems to a general desire for many sex 
worker activists. Of course, there are plenty of girls who do not 
make their sex work part of their overall lifestyle, do it primarily 
for quick money (this would be mostly everyone), and consciously 
maintain distance from their work. And most women, even sex 
worker activists, are discreet about their work, especially when 
working in social service organizations, women’s rights organiza¬ 
tions, and other social-justice projects. Minax was fairly sure that 
her BDSM workshops and general visibility kept her from being on 
a board for at-risk youth. Dana ran into trouble when a newspaper 
article chronicling her sex worker art show popped up while she 
was in school for social work. All the women I’ve talked with have 
said they’ve lost potential lovers and friends when discussing their 
work. Sex worker activists, though tough, brave, and armed with 
the most developed senses of humor in the working world, are still 
not immune to the pervasive stigma they would like to eradicate. 

Though there are tensions between anti-prostitution advo¬ 
cates and sex worker activists who narrow in on sex positivity and 
freedom of sexual expression, they all agree that the most needy 
women—often addicts, sold into prostitution by mothers or men 
they’re somehow attached to—are the women that most desperately 
need a voice and help to get out so they can make their own deci¬ 
sions and negotiate their own terms. Dana remarks on the nature 
of sex work activism and notes how more non-judgmental, practi¬ 
cal work needs to be done to assist these women in beating their 
addictions and escaping from the abuse that keeps them doing sex 
work because they’re offered little to no alternative: 

A lot of the younger generation of sex worker rights advo¬ 
cates are jaded by the glitz and glamour presented in the 
media and the history of the forerunners of the move¬ 
ment here in the US They fail to realize that we re not 
only fighting for the rights of escorts, exotic dancers, 
burlesque performers, phone sex operators, etc. We re 
fighting for the rights of all sex workers—from the street 
to the pole . . . 

It’s obvious that the sex worker activists—the largely femi¬ 
nist-identified, younger women who are not poverty-stricken or 
working for a fix, maintain a power of choice. Their refusal to be 
condescended to, fetishized, or lumped in with a different popu¬ 
lation with a wholly different set of problems is often incompatible 
with the work they attempt to do alongside those who have femi¬ 
nist aims but deny prostitution can be positive. This keeps them 
radical and defensive. And sometimes, despite the racy words and 
whip-smart wit, quiet. ® 

* Some names have been changed for privacy reasons. 


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P U N K P L A N E T 89 





“We can judge a society by looking into its prisons .” —Fyodor Dostoyevsky 

n the era of Joseph Stalin’s Russia (l 93 ° _I 95 °) there existed 
a system of institutionalized slavery created from the ranks of 
the imprisoned. Stalin, no defender of human rights, found 
it quite easy to burgeon the number of incarcerated. Prison was 
a place for criminals of all types but common crimes of the day 
included such things as having the wrong beliefs, saying or writ¬ 
ing the wrong things, and affiliating with the wrong people. In 
this environment of dictatorial intolerance it was easy to find 
oneself on the wrong side of the steel bars and quickly put to 
work. This system of prisoners turned into forced laborers at the 
whim of an all-powerful government and its interests was known 
as the Gulag. 

Ironically this notorious chapter in the history books has 
resurfaced in the very land that fought so long against this 
communist style of injustice. Van Jones, a leading activist in 
the battle to reign in the current infestation of American pris¬ 
ons, has reintroduced this word from the past to draw the stark 
parallels to what we are now facing in America. “Gulag Econ¬ 
omy” is the term Jones uses in his fight to educate the public, 
but perhaps more familiar to many is the phrase 
“prison industrial complex.” 

Akin to the military industrial complex, in 
this case the aspect of society that has been con¬ 
verted into a profit-making force is people liv¬ 
ing in incarceration and as it continues to grow in 
scope the need to dissect the dangers of this trend 
become more and more urgent. What do we appro¬ 
priately call a thing that makes money from the imprisonment 
of others? What terms describe most accurately men or women 
coerced against their will into working for the benefit of another 
with no measurable compensation? Is this not slavery by its very 
definition? 

A good thing to consider first is precisely how our system 
of law and justice is designed. Looking at the Constitution we 
find in the 13th Amendment these words: “Section I. Neither 
slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment 
for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, 
shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to 
their jurisdiction.” 


A quick glance makes it clear that the Constitution actually 
condones “slavery.” We do, in fact, allow for the presence of slavery 
in our society as a form of punishment, although presumably under 
the understanding that the law acts equally toward all. Unfortu¬ 
nately, that presumed equality is not the reality and has become so 
far from the truth that even civic leaders are overturning death row 
cases by mandate. George Ryan, Illinois’ 39 th Governor, upon leav¬ 
ing office pardoned the entirety of that state’s death-row inmates 
because there were so many inconsistencies in such cases. The oth¬ 
er distinction that the Constitution assumes in the 13th Amend¬ 
ment is that the form of slavery imposed against those incarcerated 
would serve some sort of government body as opposed to a private 
individual or other entity with motives of profit. But this particu¬ 
lar distinction has now blurred in America and the current “Gu¬ 
lag Economy” is booming in no small part because private interests 
have been allowed into the prison walls like never before. 

The exploitation of those incarcerated for the purposes of 
profit is not a recent phenomenon in America. As early as the 1890s, 
public opposition spearheaded by the working class had compelled 
many states to abolish the use of prison labor for profit. State af¬ 
ter state prohibited the sale of goods made by convict labor. In the 
I 930 s» Congress enacted the Hayes-Cooper and Ashurst-Sum- 
ner Acts, which outlawed prison labor and made it a felony to move 
prison goods across state borders. Turning this tide of public opin¬ 
ion on its head, in the 1970s, Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren 
Burger pushed for prisons to become “factories with fences.” Today 
the “Gulag Economy” revolves around an expanding new generation 
of government-owned and privately run prisons and the economies 
that thrive on these prisons. As Van Jones told me in a 2005 inter¬ 
view, “We have built 21 prisons and only one university in the past 25 
years.” Eve Goldberg and Linda Evans point out in their 1997 article 
The Prison Industrial Complex and the Global Economy that in 1995 alone, 150 
prisons were constructed nationally.” 

What is fueling this level of prison construction, particularly 
in an era when violent crime has been steadily in decline across the 
nation? One factor is that prison construction is still a politically 
popular act designed to make people feel safer and it remains a plat¬ 
form often rewarded in elections. Committing money to the econ¬ 
omy of incarceration is presented as proof of a politician’s “tough 
on crime” stance. There’s also a perverse economic incentive for the 
government because the growth of prison populations and the jails 


90 PUNK PLANET 















FACTORIES BEHIND BARS 

THE AMERICAN GULAG ECONOMY 

BY DANIEL LIPPINCOTT 





















that hold them provide a stimulation of the 
local economies that surround and serve 
the prison’s needs. 

Another aspect of the Gulag econo¬ 
my is the profitable relationship between 
prisons and corporations. Some of these 
businesses are among the biggest in cor¬ 
porate America. Prisoners have done data 
entry for Chevron, made telephone reser¬ 
vations for TWA, sewn blue jeans for Levi’s, and made lingerie for 
Victoria’s Secret. They’ve also made circuit boards, limousines, 
waterbeds, and countless other consumer products that are used 
in our everyday lives but the product’s tag may only indicate that it 
was “Made in America.” Not surprisingly one of the fastest grow¬ 
ing aspects of the Gulag Economy is prison ownership itself. In¬ 
vestment firm Smith Barney is an owner of a prison in Florida. 
Goldberg and Evans in their article also identify American Ex¬ 
press and General Electric as investors of private prison construc¬ 
tion in Oklahoma and Tennessee.” 

As the privatization of prison management has proven its eco¬ 
nomic viability it has attracted more and more in¬ 
vestment from other economic sectors that stand 
to benefit. Every year new products are created and 
promoted directly to the prison management indus¬ 
try that produces revenues in the billions of dollars. 
One recent example is a multi-billion dollar tech¬ 
nology specially created by a defense contractor to 
track cell-phone use by inmates, as recently heard on 
NPR’s The World. The defense contractor profits handsomely by sell¬ 
ing the technology and the corruption in the prison guard popula¬ 
tion, which enabled the cell phone use in the first place, will most 
likely go unresolved. Private prisons themselves strive for increased 
profits to the point of being considered a good investment on Wall 
Street. Paul D Van Ness notes in Distinguishing Facts and Fantasy CCA —the 
Correction Corporation of America, the biggest company provid¬ 
ing incarceration services in America—that, “In 1992, the com¬ 
pany reported a net income of $2,461 million; in 1997 it reported 
$ 53-955 million, which is a 22-fold increase in 5 years! The annual 
report says, ‘GCA is the sixth best performer on the NYSEs.’” (Re¬ 
printed online at www.metrojustice.org) 


However, there is another side of the 
economic coin that presents prison priva¬ 
tization in a less rosy picture. A growing 
number of studies show private prisons 
can often cost the government more than 
if they had continued to run the prisons 
themselves. A Florida report estimated 
the cost of private prisons to Florida tax¬ 
payers at $45.04 to $ 47-57 P er inmate 
per day, while the comparable figure for the state Department of 
Corrections was $ 43 - 79 - Van Ness supports this point citing “an 
Oklahoma analysis, which found that the cost at a GCA facility was 
$ 42 .I 5 > compared to $ 29-°4 f° r a state facility.” 

Another issue of contention is that in many ways these insti¬ 
tutions are not serving the interests of the law-abiding working¬ 
man and woman in America. Van Jones captures the essence of 
the situation explaining how “Corporations that won’t give jobs to 
African Americans and Latinos in our communities will work us 
for pennies on the dollar behind bars, and th en, when we get out, 
say that we are not employable because we are felons. Addition¬ 
ally, prison industries are often directly competing with private 
industry as exemplified by small furniture manufacturers nation¬ 
wide issuing complaints that they are being driven out of business 
by Unicor, which was found to pay prisoners as little as 23 cents/ 
hr while holding an inside track on government contracts. More 
and more often the best buy for a company’s payroll dollar will be 
found at Rikers, San Quentin, and Folsom. 

The important differences between state-run and private¬ 
ly owned prisons go beyond pure economics and leads us into 
the ethical gray zones of owning and operating human lives. 
Nonetheless, America today is still in need of a correctional 
system and in many ways the privatized prisons tamper with 
one of the most basic functions of government: to apply the law 
without external bias. A government facility untainted by the 
presence of profiteering would carry the goal of reducing in¬ 
mate populations whereas private prisons benefit from having 
their facilities at capacity. Another concern is that these inher¬ 
ent biases against the prisoner’s freedom and minimal third 
party oversight could lead to artificially extended prison terms 
or hinder rehabilitation. 


IF AS A NATION WE TREAT 
OUR PRISONERS AS 
SLAVES, HOW COULD IT BE 
THAT THEY WOULD 
RETURN TO SOCIETY WITH 
ANY RESPECT FOR IT? 


\ 


92 PUNK PLANET 

















The American Gulag Economy’s source of product supply is, 
of course, the “War on Crime.” Three decades after the War on 
Grime began, the United States has developed the prison-indus¬ 
trial complex into a set of bureaucratic, political, and economic 
interests that encourage increased spending on imprisonment, 
regardless of the actual need. Steven R Donziger, an attorney who 
headed the National Criminal Justice Commission in 1996* de¬ 
scribes the thinking to Eric Schlosser in a 1998 article, The Prison- 
Industrial Complex , appearing in The Atlantic: “If crime is going up, 
then we need to build more prisons and if crime is going down, 
it’s because we built more prisons and building even more prisons 
will therefore drive crime down even lower.” As long as the War 
on Crime fervor thrives there is no need for the prison industrial 
complex to be conspiratorial or behind closed doors. 

Another aspect of the War on Crime issue is the “War on 
Drugs.” In California, the top three charges for those entering 
prison are: possession of a controlled substance, possession of a 
controlled substance for sale, and robbery. Also relevant is the fact 
that prison terms for drug-related crimes are now on average sur¬ 
passing those given for violent crimes. In his 2001 article for Can¬ 
nabis Culture Magazine entitled “US Prison Empire,” Rever¬ 
end Damuzi speaks to this point, “The average sentence 
for a drug offense is 82.4 months; for sexual abuse, 
66.9 months; for manslaughter, 26.8 months; and for 
theft, 24.6 months. Nationwide, 31 percent of all ad¬ 
missions to state prison in 1996 were drug offenders, 
according to a 2000 report issued by Human Rights 
Watch. On CBS This Morning, September 13, 1999 * citing 
the extraordinary number of drug offenders in USprisons, Gen¬ 
eral Barry McCaffrey, former director of the White House Office 
of National Drug Control Policy, decried the creation of what he 
termed a “drug gulag.” 

Ending the War on Drugs would severely undermine the jus¬ 
tification for all the prisons that now exist. It is easy to see that 
many interests would be much better served if the War on Drugs 
continued indefinitely because it creates a constant treadmill of 
prisoners serving time, leaving with the social stigma of incar¬ 
ceration, often unable to find sustainable work, and eventually 
returning to the prison system for longer terms. Studies con¬ 
ducted by the Federal Bureau of Prisons from the period of 1987- 


1994 reported recidivism rates of 25"7° percent. Alarming race 
distinctions occur as Black and Latino populations were found to 
recidivate at three to four times the rate of white men. 

There can be no doubt that there is likely a place for incarcera¬ 
tion in our society and that there is a very small population may not 
be trusted to respect the law. But ultimately how can we communicate 
with authority what is right or wrong while using methods that disre¬ 
spect or dishonor the wrongdoer’s inherent humanity? If as a nation 
we treat our prisoners as slaves, how could it be that they would return 
to society with any respect for it? And if one doesn’t respect society 
because its laws are unjust and inconsistent toward them, what likeli¬ 
hood remains that they will live within those laws? 

To answer these questions honestly as a nation it would require 
an immense paradigm shift. We would need to view criminals as 
people with a special set of needs and an ability to change if helped. 
We would have to be able to admit that recidivism is a failure on the 
part of our society as well and not just the individual’s burden. We 
would have to be willing to demand and maintain a system of law 
and justice that truly treats all people equally. As Van Jones told me, 
“every century has its moral struggle in regards to race in this coun¬ 
try: l8oo’s was slavery, 1900’s was Jim Crow. In the new century this 
struggle is played out within the incarceration industry.” 

The societal dehumanization of the “bad guys,” which al¬ 
lows most Americans to not consider what it means to have a 
slave population living and dying in our country today robs us 
of our own humanity—a humanity and compassion that ulti¬ 
mately each one of us relies on every day of our lives. Were the 
proverbial tables to turn would we wish to be subjected to the 
system as it operates today? The goal of our criminal justice 
system is to uphold a sense of safety and justice in our society. 
These institutions should not be run using the methods that 
they are bound to punish in others. We as a society must be 
willing to turn away from our hypocrisies in order to guarantee 
at least the potential for a true equality. It must be an equal¬ 
ity that extends even to the unwanted, the shunned, and the 
scorned. Ultimately, real safety and security in our communi¬ 
ties will come only from a shift in resources away from these 
modern prisons with profit margins and toward the creation of 
a comprehensive safety net both within and without those for¬ 
midable prison walls. ® 


P U N K P L A N E T 93 






















I n early 2002, a group of eight Chicago-based artists and ac¬ 
tivists gathered together to form a radical arts collective called 
StreetRec. They worked on creating memorable and resistant 
protest graphics to be disseminated widely for use in public space. 
Born out of the counter globalization movement and the criti¬ 
cally engaged art community, they were interested in making art 
that would challenge the domination of corporate control and US 
hegemony. Part of their politics included an embodied critique 
of the over-valuing of individual competition rather than group 
collaboration. This cultural tendency is particularly prevalent in 
the art world in which some of them participated. For this reason, 
they choose to credit all of the art they created to the collective 
and not to individual artists. They had no funding or sponsor¬ 
ship. They were simply a voluntary association of engaged artists 
with some graphic design skills and an offer from a sympathetic 
printer to help them out. 

After several meetings and discussions, the group came to 
a collective decision to attend the protest against the World Eco¬ 
nomic Forum (WEF) being held in New York City that February 
in which they would bring their new creations. One member of 
StreetRec had seen a Vanity Fair photo spread (shot by famous por¬ 
trait photographer Annie Leibowitz) of the warmongers them¬ 
selves: George W Bush, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, and Donald 
Rumsfeld. They decided to modify and recontextualize these im¬ 
ages and create larger-than-life cut out heads to be carried at the 
protest. A member of the group recalls, “The Annie Liebowitz 
pictures of Bush and his cabinet were crying out for defacement. 
We discussed a variety of ways in which we could mutilate these 
images, from the grotesque to the culturally charged to the satiri¬ 
cal . . . and we ended up with a smattering of all three.” Little did 
they know that their visual interventions would travel far and wide 
and raise complex questions about artistic appropriation, the free 
use of culture, and the commodification of dissent. 

Although StreetRec was appropriating images from a corpo¬ 
rate magazine, and therefore impeding on copyright, they were 
significantly changing the images for not-for profit dissemina¬ 
tion for both critical and educational purposes. Thus their use of 
these images be considered a fair use. Fair use describes condi¬ 
tions under which copyrighted material may be used with out per¬ 
mission and there have been and continue to be long legal battles 
concerning the specifics of the laws. Regardless of the law, many 
people in the copyright liberation movement see the ownership 
of intellectual property for the generation of profits as damaging 
to the free exchange of ideas. Although created to do just the op¬ 
posite, in practice most copyright laws protect big corporations 
and other powerful entities. These laws can be stifling to creative 
development as well as political dissent. In a way, StreetRec and 
others like them can be seen as information Robin Hoods: taking 
from the rich (corporate content providers), and giving away to 
the poor (grassroots activism and free culture) for social benefits 
and sharing, not for profit. 

The group created three heads approximately four-and-a- 
half feet high by three feet wide for the WEF protest. A member 
of StreetRec describes the heads this way: “One—Bush with ‘En¬ 
ron’ sutures: arguably the most ghoulish of all the heads, Bush 


has a wide cut that splits his mouth well into his cheeks, and has 
a matching slice across his forehead. These wounds are closed by 
thick, ugly sutures, the ones on the forehead spelling out ‘Enron.’ 
Two—Cheney with the ‘Got Oil’ moustache: a sloppy oil mous¬ 
tache dribbling over the man’s lips, while on his forehead in loop¬ 
ing liquid script are the words ‘Got Oil?’ satirizing a popular ad 
campaign for milk. Three—Rumsfield with ‘3000 Afghani Civil¬ 
ian Deaths’: inspired by the infamous Kings of Punk 12” by Poison 
Idea, Rumsfield has the Afghani civilian death toll (at the time of 
making) carved into his flesh with uneven gashes. It’s important 
to note all of these signs were in lovely grayscale, with the only col¬ 
or being the various wounds and blood.” Each also had a teardrop 
tattoo; a jailhouse symbol indicating the wearer is a murderer. 
Graphically, these visual mashups were borrowing from and com¬ 
menting on the media culture they were immersed in to create 
new meaning and dialogue. 

When StreetRec arrived at the WEF protest in NY, one mem¬ 
ber recalls, “We were amazed at the initial reception of the heads 
when we walked to the starting point of the march. About IOOO 
people just started cheering wildly. It was really overwhelming. We 
knew at that point we had done something really provocative. We 
had no idea that they would travel like they did.” These same heads 
were also brought to a protest against the Trans Atlantic Business 
Dialogue, a Chicago anti-war protest, and to a Milwaukee protest 
with Illinois Peace Action. 

With the reception of the first set of heads, and in prepara¬ 
tion for the January 18, 2003 national protest against the War in 
Iraq being held in DC, the group created a new series. This group 
of images was called “The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse”; 
this time the same heads had their eyes blacked out and one word 
across their foreheads: Bush had “War,” Rumsfeld had “Death,” 
Cheney had “Pestilence,” and Wolfowitz was marked with “Fam¬ 
ine.” They were also brought to several anti-war protests in Chi¬ 
cago including the International Day of Action against the War, 
February 15, 2003 as well as protests in other parts of the US. 

At all the protests, the signs were documented by various media 
outlets and the resistant street spectacle entered the corporate me¬ 
dia spectacle. Corporate media coverage is a much-debated arena in 
activist circles. Activists are at once seeking coverage from corporate 
media because of the huge audience potential and at the same time 
activists remain suspicious of corporate media’s tendency to misrep¬ 
resent or debase subjects. Certainly StreetRec must have discussed 
these issues before hand, for the sheer size of the heads and their 
slickness in a protest context were sure to stand out and make for an 
excellent photo opportunity. In some circles, this is called Tactical 
Media, using creative tactics to create a spectacle that the media will 
pay attention to and thus enter your issues into a larger public dia¬ 
logue. Regardless of this debate, however, these contemporary protest 
images spread around the world and Bush’s head with the word “War” 
were intricately linked. 

Fellow protestors and the media loved these images more than 
the artists had anticipated. From Newsweek to the Revolutionary Worker 
to the South China Morning Post and The Times of India —protest photos that 
included the StreetRec-manipulated heads proliferated around the 
globe. Ultimately, StreetRec felt their desire to infuse protest with 


94 PUNK PLANET 









PUNK PLANET 95 









newer, slicker graphics worked in communicating their visual and 
political ideas to the world. It was exciting that with so few resources, 
a small number of people could penetrate the media landscape on 
this large of a scale. 

With the heads’ welcome reception and an intention to spread 
critical and free culture, the group decided to make the graphics 
more accessible to other protestors by putting up easily downloadable 
files on the web. They distributed flyers at the antiwar rally in DC that 
had a link to a site where anyone could download the images. At the 
site visitors were greeted with this information and an email address: 
“Hello! Please feel free to use any of these images for your own activ¬ 
ist/non-profit purposes. If they get any press, we’d love to hear/see 
about it. All images by the StreetRec collective 2002-03.” They also 
posted the link on activist website www.indymedia.org. 

Later the group created a video called Retooling Dissent, which in¬ 
cluded a booklet with step-by-step instructions on how to make your 
own high-quality protest graphics. (See sidebar.) Soon, images of the 
heads (not just in photos from protests) started to appear in all kinds 
of places. Independent magazines such as Lumpen and AdBusters asked 
to reprint them. They were spotted on multiple websites, show fly¬ 
ers, and T-shirts. To use a marketing term, these images were sticky. 
StreetRec’s intention to distribute these images for free cultural use 
was working. 

Then, one photographer made copyrighted postcards of a photo 
she had taken of the heads from the WEF protest, and it seemed that 
issues around copyright and attribution became more complicated. 
Certainly, StreetRec had appropriated the original photos but had 
both re-imaged them and made them free for public use. Now it 
seemed they were getting re-privatized. StreetRec began to see how 
difficult it can be to in assert and maintain free access to ideas in a 
culture driven by commodities. 

In 2003, New York Times op-ed columnist, Paul Krugman came 
out with a book entitled The Great Unraveling published by WW Norton 
and Company. The US edition had a plain red and white cover and 
the subhead Losing Our Way in the New Century. The UK edition, however, 
had a collage of images including prominent placement of StreetRec’s 
Bush/Enron head and the Cheney/Got Oil? as well as a different 
subtitle: From Boom to Bust in Three Scandalous Years. Clearly, these different 
covers were a developed strategy on the part of the marketing depart¬ 
ment to sell books to different demographics. 

StreetRec was surprised to find out about the book cover es¬ 
pecially since it was so clearly a marketing move. The images on 
the cover of the book had not been re-worked in any way and were 
being used for profit, however critical the book may have been. 
One member of StreetRec contacted the publishing company to 
discuss a possible honorarium or credit and asked for at least a few 
copies of the book for their files. If this book had been a not-for- 
profit venture, then it would merely have been treated as another 
of the exciting re-printings of StreetRec’s work. 

StreetRec weren’t the only people concerned with Krugman’s 
cover. Regardless of the books’ exclusion from the US market, right- 
wing journalist Donald Luskin at the National Review choose to high¬ 


light the cover images in his column as a way to discredit Krugman’s 
ideas. In a November 24 > 2003 piece called “Running From Cover” 
at www.nationalreview.com, Luskin writes, “It took a simple picture 
for the New York Times to finally distance itself from America’s most 
dangerous liberal pundit . . . It’s a photomontage showing the face of 
President George W Bush with huge Frankenstein sutures across his 
mouth and brow, and the word ‘Enron’ stitched into his forehead. 
Vice President Dick Cheney’s face sports a Hitleresque mustache; the 
words “Got Oil?” are scrawled on his forehead. It is a hateful, shock¬ 
ing, and disturbing image.” 1 

Even the Republican National Committee weighed in on this 
cover. Spokesperson Christine Iverson stated in the New York Times 
(“One Book, Two Very Different Covers,” Nov 23 * 2003* Books 2 ,) 
that, “The fact that they are using a much different cover here in the 
United States is proof that his tactics are offensive to mainstream 
Americans.” The New York Times also attempted to distance themselves 
from it, spokeswoman Catherine J Mathis stated, “ ... we were never 
even shown the cover.” And finally Krugman himself, in the same 
Times story said, “It is a marketing thing, not a statement ... I should 
have taken a look at that and said ‘What are you doing marketing me 
as if I’m Michael Moore?”’ 

Whether it was strategic or accidental that the images weren’t 
attributed to the group is unclear. But protest art and under¬ 
ground culture are constantly appropriated by the market, and the 
publisher would likely have paid handily for the rights to reprint 
the original photos by Annie Leibowitz. Regardless, the images 
had reached higher places of power and controversy than any of 
the artists could have imagined. 

The heads brought out for the protests against the war three 
years earlier resurfaced in November 2005 in a review in the Arts 
section of the New York Times. This time, they were not in a street pro¬ 
test, nor on the cover of a book, but appeared in perhaps an unlikely 
place, the Museum of Modern Art’s PS I in New York as part of an 
artist installation. The artist, Jon Kessler, had included the Bush 
“War,” Cheney “Pestilence,” and Wolfowitz “Famine” heads to cover 
an entire wall of his installation room. And although his installa¬ 
tion was quite elaborate with multiple components including video, 
electronics, media photos, and sound, the image of the wall with the 
heads was what critics in both The New York Times and the Village Voice chose 
to include in their positive reviews. Members of StreetRec received e- 
mails from friends asking if they had a show at PS I and/or wondering 
if they had been credited. None of the artists in StreetRec had had any 
contact with Jon Kessler. 

Jon Kessler, it turns out, had found the images in a book called 
The War in Iraq: A Photo History. The book is a pro-war book published in 
2003 with an unfortunate introduction stating, “This new war of 
liberation lasted only 41 days.” Of the over 300 pages of photos, only 
three have images of protest against the war and it is there, on page 
46, that the heads show up. Jason Turner, a photographer with AP 
Wide World Photos took the picture at the Washington, DC, Janu¬ 
ary 18, 2003 Antiwar Rally—the protest that StreetRec had originally 
made the heads for. Kessler said, “I bought the image directly from 


1 The New York Times also failed to read the Got Oil? reference to the ubiquitous Got Milk? advertising campaign stating “the British jacket bears caricatures of. . . Vice President Cheney with 
a Hitler mustache. A dark scrawl on the vice president’s forehead reads, ‘Got Oil?’” Later the New York Times published a correction and explained the Got Milk? reference. 


96 P U N K P L A N E T 








s e o« ? u „f a bOf 




lV>e *%d 


tK?”.> 








to ' use- 


the agency that represents the photographer who took the picture that 

1 saw in the book. I was told that he, the photographer came to see the 
show ... I cropped the photo and just used the posters.” He chose that 
image because “There are other pictures of Bush in my show. That 
one had the power and energy that would have deserved the size that I 
was planning on blowing it up to.” Kessler paid Corbis for other im¬ 
ages in the show. Kessler stated that he had no personal position on 
appropriation. If Kessler had paid a photojournalist who took a photo 
of a public art piece by a more well known artist such as Jeff Koons, 
would he have felt as at ease using the images? Perhaps there is some¬ 
thing about the way protest art is valued by the gallery art world that 
excludes even asking this question. 2 

One member of StreetRec responded to the Kessler in¬ 
stallation in this way: “There was some exchange via e-mail 
(with members of StreetRec) about it for a few days but people 
actually seemed less inclined to do anything than any of the 
previous instances. This can be attributed to a real distance 
from the graphics and the group no longer being together. It 
can also be attributed to the fact that it was a pretty confusing 
situation as far as it being a critical art installation that was not 
apparently for profit (though I think we know that his work was 
actually for sale) ... I thought it was more interesting and con¬ 
troversial that his work said more about the limits and respon¬ 
sibilities of appropriating radical aesthetics meant for street 
contexts for art-world contexts. Of course, there are also limits 
to appropriating Vanity Fair aesthetics for protest contexts, and 
they mainly are that you cannot really (legally) complain much 
when your shit gets jacked.” 

People in StreetRec have had a mixture of feelings about the 
re-appropriation and re-use of their appropriated graphics. One 

2 This came out of a conversation with artist Blithe Riley. 


member felt, “It was my impression that that project specifically was 
created for use without copyright or expectation for reward. If some¬ 
one wanted to misuse a head with a bloody Enron stitched into the 
forehead, well then I’d like to see that.” Another member, on the 
other hand, felt, “I think it is always fine if someone takes them and 
reconfigures them, but to use them to sell your book or as your own 
unmodified ‘original’ art work, that’s bullshit and really damn lazy. 
Yeah, we took the photos from a famous photographer in the first 
place, but really modified them and changed them into something 
hideously new . . . “ And another felt that when free, open culture 
meant for the commons, is taken and copyrighted for the benefit of 
an individual or a corporation, it is unethical. S/he didn’t want credit 
or money, s/he just wanted the images to remain in the context of a 
free and open culture. The anarchist sentiment that property is theft 
extends to intellectual property as well. Not only does StreetRec not 
own the images, the sentiment goes, nobody should. 

As the heads continue to have relevance, they have contin¬ 
ued to be used in ways that StreetRec intended: by protestors as 
a means of powerful, visual, public, political expression. Others 
have taken the images out of the commons and privatized them 
back into the world of copyright and ownership without changing 
the design in the least. Appropriation is both an important and 
inevitable part of a vibrant and living culture. The context and 
intention of use of appropriated culture raises difficult questions 
about remuneration for the labor of creativity, the nature and val¬ 
ue of credit for work, and the means that one has to have a say in its 
use. In today’s world certainly corporations charge heavily for the 
use of their propriety material and grassroots culture continues to 
be robbed not merely of their labor and production, but of their 
intentions for how a free culture might function. ® 


PUNK PLANET 97 





L arge scale signs for protest are often either 
hand-painted banners or professionally cre¬ 
ated by a print shop. Large-scale computer output 
could be seen as a middle ground between purely 
handmade and professionally done protest graph¬ 
ics. If you’re familiar with graphics software at all, 
make a striking sign that will last through several 
actions can be relatively easy. 

The prices for large-scale output can vary 
widely, so ask around. Copy shops are going to be 
the main places with these big printers, but some 
art schools and universities will also have them. 
They usually take a low-res but large- size file for 
output. The advantages of computer design and 
output are: 

• You can use photographic images and they will 
reproduce well in color or black and white. 

• The lettering or typography is clear and easily 
readable. 

• The images you create will be able to be re¬ 
produced across different media (video, print, 
web), at different sizes, as much as you want. 

So get the file specs (i.e. what document size, 
what resolution, what file type) from whoever is go¬ 
ing to print your file (hopefully for cheap), make a 
powerful image (defenselink.mil on the web is good 
for hi-res images of US heads of state and military 
hardware begging to be purposed), include type if 
you want, and print away. 

Once your sign is printed, you need to mount it 
on some kind of backing. If it’s going to be a long 
action/march, you'll want to mount it on some¬ 
thing light so you can hold it up all day. The best 



but most expensive lightweight board is corrugated 
plastic, also called gatorboard. You can get this at 
an art supply store - the good thing about this stuff 
is if the cops start to get violent, it can double as a 
sturdy shield. However, gatorboard is almost pro¬ 
hibitively expensive, and the next best thing is thick 
foam core. Also available at art supply stores, foam 
core is lightweight but substantial, and has a good 
texture for mounting paper onto. If foam core is still 
too rich for your blood, I have also had some good 
results from mounting signs onto thick styrofoam 
insulation, which has a good strength to weight ra¬ 
tio and comes in huge uninterrupted sheets. It can 
be a little hard to work with, and you might need to 
test some various adhesives on it, to make sure they 
won’t melt it. 


With this printout/backing board setup, I have 
experimented with a few different ways to mount 
the sign to a pole of some kind. The most successful 
that I’ve found is to put nylon cord through the back¬ 
ing board and then glue the print on top of it. You 
drill holes in the board, then poke the cord through 
with a screwdriver. Remember to cut the cord lon¬ 
ger then you think you'll need, you can always trim it 
later. With these ties, you will be able tie the sign to 
a pole of any kind (some cities will only let you take 
in cardboard tubes rather than pvc pipe or wood). 
See diagram below: 

To glue your print to the board, I find the best 
glue is a heavy-duty spray adhesive. Spray 77 is a 
good one, but there are plenty. You’ll get a much 
better price on adhesives at a hardware store than 
at an art store. Spray down your mounting board 
with the adhesive, getting a good coat especially at 
the edges. Once your board has a good coat of ad¬ 
hesive on it, slowly lay your print onto it while some¬ 
one else smoothes it out, being careful the press out 
bubbles; this usually takes 2 or 3 people to do effec¬ 
tively - two lowering while one smoothes. 

After you have your ties through the board and 
the print glued on, for added durability/waterproof¬ 
ing, you should coat the print in spray acrylic clear 
coat. There are a wide variety of clear acrylics avail¬ 
able at the hardware and art store, with the cheaper 
ones being available at the hardware store. This way 
if your print gets rained on, the dyes won’t run. 

Though this process sounds elaborate, once 
you have the materials you can mount a sign like 
this in an hour. Good luck and keep up the fight! 


StreetRec | These heads and other examples of the defacement of powerful peo¬ 
ple have been used in protest throughout the US, and we have set up a website 
with multiple download options for the further dissemination of such graphics 
initiatives, www.appliedsemiotics.com/heads. As we have presented workshops 
and screened this video, it has become increasingly clear that we need to pro¬ 


duce diagrams for the StreetRec projects. Although the StreetRec projects are 
some of the simplest to produce there are many technical issued which could be 
encountered in the design and material decisions when attempting to appropriate 
these technologies. Feel free to contact us about any great successes or failures 
with these projects. Street.rec@counterproductivelndustries.com 


PUNK PLANET 























































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columns PP77 

elizabeth crane 
al burian 
alison wolfe 
josh hooten 
nomy lamm 
larry livermore 
johnny temple 


W hen I was 
a kid, I 
thought I would 
for sure be one of 
these things: 

i) a doctor, like 
Marcus Welby, MD 

2)an impressionist, like Rich Little 

3)a police officer, like Angie Dickinson 

4-)a Broadway star (I wanted to be in Hair, without the naked) 
and of course, 

5)married by age 25- Because: 

a)that seemed the right amount of old to me, and 

b)it had not yet been suggested to me that marriage was 
anything less than urgent, 
but also leaving 

c) plenty of time for me to establish my career as a sing¬ 
ing doctor/detective, and to have kids shortly after that, 
so that I could be a young beautiful mom like my own, 
because that seemed important when I was eight, al¬ 
though I don’t know why. 

Plus also I thought I might move to Italy, or Colorado. 

Also, I was sure that this person I would marry would be a 
movie star, that I should marry a movie star, that I deserved to marry a 
movie star, which, in retrospect, perhaps I did, but which is to say 


only that my definition of “deserved” has changed. I got as far as 
dating a few movie stars. Don’t let’s talk about that. 

Somewhere around third grade, having consumed Harriet the 
Spy like an essential nutrient that had been missing, I decided to 
be a writer. Emphasis here on “decided.” I didn’t know what kind 
of writer I thought I’d be, and there were distractions, let’s call 
them, that came in the form of a long list of random unplanned 
careers, stupid boys, irrational and spontaneous cross-country 
moves, and a variety of substances. Don’t let’s talk about any of 
that either. 

Occasionally, I would take a vague stab in the direction of the 
writing goal. I wrote several (weak, unseen) screenplays. I wrote 
the sitcom I thought I’d like to see, one I thought was, um, funny, 
but I didn’t show it to anyone. OK, I tried to show it to one person 
but he refused to look. Mostly, I wrote letters. The letters were ac¬ 
tually pretty good. Sadly, there wasn’t a big market for letters. 

I became a waitress. Waitressing made sense to me, way more 
than the idea of going to an office somewhere to do whatever it is 
people in offices do. Shout into speakerphones. However, after 
several years of waitressing, and with my planned career of being 
a famous writer in a neutral position, I became tired, and things 
like sitting down, stapling things and having health benefits sud¬ 
denly seemed appealing in a job. So I went to work in an office. 

A little about this office. Although I spent several years there, 
I’m certain now that this office job served the opposite of its in¬ 
tended purpose, ultimately helping to facilitate my eventual move 
away from anything resembling a normal life. The joy of stapling 
and sitting wore off quickly, and it turned out only the higher-ups 



102 PUNK PLANET 




got to shout, and frankly, the overall air of urgency at this enter¬ 
tainment job seemed extremely disproportionate to, you know, 
the actual urgency of the work. People were regularly seen run¬ 
ning down the hall carrying some piece of paper or another, as 
though the resulting receipt of paper might somehow alter the 
course of human history. The fact that actual famous people were 
often present went a long way to completing my disillusionment 
about what fame was going to do for me. I became appropriately 
fearful of what fame might do for me. I’m already overly fascinated 
with myself, particularly as a sort of control with which to measure 
against the rest of the population the relative greatness/badness/ 
weirdness of my life. That anyone else would share my interest in 
me—and subsequently indulge any me-oriented whims, was a di¬ 
saster waiting to happen. 

I continued to write, in between staplings. As randomly as 
anything else, I found myself writing fiction. This one stuck, and 
it wasn’t even any of my lists. I began to put actual effort, effort 
involving a great deal of time and postage and occasional stapling, 
but for my own ends, into releasing these stories into the world 
where they might actually be read. These days, I have a GV. Or 
what passes for a CV. There was a time, back in the hoping-to-be- 
Angie-Dickinson era, when I did not know what a GV was. I knew 
what a CB was. If you’d asked me if I had a CV, I might have replied 
by saying that I didn’t have a car, and we might have had a very awk¬ 
ward, confusing conversation at best. More or less, I make rent 
doing things I actually enjoy doing. Although George Clooney glanced 
at me one time, no, really, I am not married to a movie star, but I 
am married, which happened long past 25 » at what turned out to 


be the exact right time with the exact right guy, which is the only 
way I can endorse going about it at all. I realize you all figured this 
out before I did. You may have been born punk. I was not. (Al¬ 
though, in the spirit of economy, a general DIY credo—also known 
in our family as, “if you want a new dress, make it yourself.” was 
passed down to me by several generations of crafty ladies, which I 
have carried on since I was in junior high school.) 

Many of these facts and others, surprise me on a regular ba¬ 
sis. They surprise me so much as to seem profound. They surprise 
me so much that a sort of contagion ensues whereby it is possible 
for anything to surprise me. Even the most seemingly mundane 
moments do not fly by me unnoticed. There seems to be a weight 
to everything. Saying something like, “Mmm, coffee smells 
good,” and knowing that this is an audio transmission that will be 
received, and likely responded to, by this other person who lives in 
my apartment. Attempting to grow flowers from seed for the first 
time and discovering actual sprouts a few weeks later. (Nevermind 
that this other person I live with, unaware that I had planted these 
seeds, retilled the soil and planted some seeds of his own, result¬ 
ing in a crop of cilantro among my petunias.) I know now that a 
pattern has emerged whereby eventually a seed will sprout, a call 
or an e-mail will come with a proposal that was not even remotely 
on my radar in terms of something I planned to do. 

Like, I dunno, say, writing a column for Punk Planet. Although 
I have long thought a column of my own would be a dream come 
true (Letters! To—everyone!), I think I’ve established here that 
I’m not on your typical punk path. I ambled down some other, 
more khaki-toned paths first. But make no mistake. I am on it, 


PUNK PLANET 103 






I ’ve only been in 
the band for two 
practices and al¬ 
ready there is tur¬ 
moil. The singer 
wants to kick out the 
bass player. Things 
aren’t looking too 
good for the drum¬ 
mer either. If all 
this terminating 
goes down, that will leave me as the long-standing core member, 
and this as my one-week anniversary in the band approaches. 

The singer shows up at my house in the early afternoon, 
guitar in tow, ready to teach my roommate the bass parts, and 
to double-check my guitar playing for good measure. He is livid 
about the other guys, who not only cancelled last Wednesday’s 
practice, but now have discovered scheduling conflicts for our 
first show, slated to happen in a basement in Rogers Park a few 
weeks from now. “I can’t abide these unreliable people,” the 
singer explains, then concedes, “It’s not the drummer’s fault. 
He’s OK—for now. We ll have to work on him. He’s got these cra¬ 
zy ideas that a college education is going to get him somewhere 
in life!” 

He gestures at the practice amps, lined up against the wall. 
“Hopefully we can convince him that this —” he means not the 
practice amps themselves, but what they represent: a lifestyle, 
an ideology, freedom, the touring punk band ethos. “This is 
the sweet stuff of life, man. These are the important, life¬ 
changing experiences. You’ll learn more playing in a band 
than any book or degree or job could ever teach you. We both 
know it. But if he can’t grasp that by, oh, let’s say end of the 
summer—he’s OUT!” 

As for the bass player, there is just no hope. He has cancelled 
our band’s show for no better reason than a prior commitment 
to play a show with his other band. “This shows a serious lack of 
priorities,” laments our singer. “I mean, come on. Maybe if it was 
some great show. But it’s a show in Indiana, for fuck’s sake! Who 
even books a show in Indiana? What’s the point?” 

My roommate learns the bass parts pretty quickly, especially 
considering that she’s a country guitarist and has never played 
bass before. But it’s punk rock, the people’s music, anyone can do 
it, and here it is, once again, in its most beautiful and pure form. 
Half an hour later, we’ve got a couple of songs down and we are 
barreling through them. A-E-D, G-D-A, yeah, that’s right, you 
got it, just chug on the A in that part at the end. Punk-rock mu¬ 
sic has provided me some nice experiences in life: it’s allowed me 
to travel to some wacky places and meet some incredible people. 
The core of it, though, the real truth of the experience, is here 
at the starting gate, sitting around the apartment jamming out 
some tunes with some people you like. I think about the sweet 
stuff of life, the life-changing experiences: there’s not much I 


can think of that I’d trade for an afternoon of playing music with 
my friends. 

My first two practices with this band happened in a rented 
practice space, sterile and functional, soundproofed and with 
easy access to vending machines. The practice space experi¬ 
ence still seems alien to me, something I’d never really experi¬ 
enced before living in Chicago. In North Carolina, we played 
in basements, frantically, trying to get the song done before the 
neighbors called the cops. It was inconvenient, it was a hassle, 
it was unprofessional. I miss those times: the us-against-them 
feeling, the giddy sense of being on the cusp of cracking a secret 
code, of re-arranging those same few chords so that, like a tor¬ 
nado tearing through the house, we’d be swept up by it, blown 
out of the basement and into the world. What is greatness in 
music, after all, but a subjective assessment of how much plea¬ 
sure was derived? 

Now, as we run through the songs in the living room, things 
feel right. The connection of synching up on a strumming pat¬ 
tern, a simple set of bar chords, smiling as we look at each other, 
nodding. “That sounded pretty good!” I say, when the song’s over. 
The singer agrees. “Pretty good. But let’s try tightening up the 
bridge. Take it from the second chorus . . .” 

Practice is a success. My roommate is in the band. We go to 
a bar to celebrate. The singer tells my roommate the extended 
plan, the shows we’ve got lined up, the records we’re going to put 
out, the tours we ll go on; I got the same pitch when I joined last 
week. She acts unfazed, but by time the bar closes up, I can see 
she’s been infected by his enthusiasm. She has begun to dare to 
dream of what could happen. That makes it especially unfortu¬ 
nate when the bass player calls on the way home, to let the singer 
know that he has cancelled the show in Indiana so that we can 
play our show. The bass player is back in. The roommate is out. 
In the car, a grim, stony silence descends. The ride home is tense 
and awkward. 

“I guess I overreacted,” the singer admits. “I probably should 
have waited a couple of days. I guess I jumped the gun.” She is 
obviously hurt, but acts tough, tells him it’s no problem, that 
she wasn’t really that into it anyway, and anyway, whatever. Only 
moments ago, we were a band, and could lock ourselves into 
that special band bubble of things we were going to do, poten¬ 
tial energy, the group dream. Now she’s excluded from that, and 
so we’ve run out of things to talk about. Why must things be so 
complicated? Why must human beings be so foolish and strange? 
I just wanted to play guitar in a punk band. It seemed so simple 
when I agreed to it. Like all things worth doing, this is already 
manifesting itself as IO times more effort than it should be for 
the ends that will be achieved. You can’t think of things in terms 
of effort-to-results ratio if you want to ge,t anything done; I’ve 
learned that by now. Still, this seems like a lot of heartache for 
just two practices—three, if you count the one where my room¬ 
mate was in the band. 

Hey, got an extra four bucks? Want to hear some crazy music? Go to stickfiguredistro.com and order the Nest of Ice CD-R. It’s a 
24-minute, 11-song rock opera epic by myself and Mr Pete Wagner. Give it a try. 



104 PUNK PLANET 








AJLLI 
WOLFE 



E ver get the 
feeling you’ve 
been cheated? 
Terror and doom 
punch you in the 
stomach and throw 
you in the gutter. 
It happened to me! 
(No way!) I haven’t 
been done like this 
since my Cheap Trick Record days like IO years ago. I thought my 
love life had evolved somewhat—will someone please gimme back 
my rocking chair?! Not that I haven’t pulled my share of shit too, 
but believe me, I wasn’t this bad, and I paid dearly. I was so happy, 
or thought I was. Not that you need another person to make you 
complete or happy, but it’s nice work if you can get it. Plus I’m a 
twin anyways, so I gravitate toward the Twinkie life. 

It all started with an imposed eggshell “hiatus” then a break 
up of flimsy-ass excuses that were all over the place. Nothing re¬ 
ally made sense, it sounded crazy in fact, pathetic, so I would feel 
sorry for him. He even dug up any petty incident he could think 
of to somehow make it my fault, to make him feel better. I asked 
over and over again if there was someone else, and all I got was lie 
after lie. Then silence, two whole months of it. I wrote him some 
letters, trying to figure things out or whatever—and they were 
damn good! Then finally I got this piece of crooked-ass chicken 
scratch in the mail finally admitting all his screwing around in his 
bachelor pad that mommy helps fund, the new girlfriend who had 
no idea about me and who I of course didn’t know about either. 
And he had no intention of telling either of us, until she found 
out through the word on the street. But he still kept being a ly¬ 
ing sack-o-shit to me, and continues to omit a lot with her. Like 
him begging me back insanely after I finally found him out, and 
still thinking that he could somehow keep us both hanging around 
separately so he could have his cake and eat it too. Oh the incred¬ 
ible sense of entitlement! I guess long distance has enabled him to 
pull this shit off. Omissions are lies too, alright?! 

I was talking to a man at the bus stop the other day. We were dis¬ 
cussing the maniac city buses in DC. Then he goes, “Excuses ain’t 
nothin’ but lies. The truth stands still, but a lie goes on and on and 
on. Some people make a living off of lies.” Damn straight—it was like 
he read my mind. That’s the thing, it’s the web of lies that makes you 
crazy, makes it so hard to heal ‘cause the damage goes on and on. I 
feel like I shoulda known, shoulda trusted my intuition. But is it so 
wrong to love someone? To trust them? To believe them? 

For the most part, I grew up in an all-girl very liberal house¬ 
hold. My mother was an outspoken lesbian who started the first 
women’s health care clinic in my hometown of Olympia, Washing¬ 
ton. She didn’t take no shit. I wish more of that woulda rubbed off on 
me. But in the “real world,” a sexist society, what does it mean for a 
mostly-straight girl to engage intimately with guys? I mean, you like 
what you like, right? But what if it’s not good for you? Is it ever good 


enough? Can it really work? I don’t know. I think that maybe because 
of my upbringing, I really don’t understand guys. I know there’s that 
Venus and Mars book, maybe I should read it. I even went to see Jack¬ 
ass II the other night to see if I could gain any insight into the inner- 
workings of the male mind! Well, I sure hope that’s not the answer! 
But really, why should I have to work so hard to understand the dude 
psyche, when they don’t put any effort in trying to understand me, 
much less sexism and how it functions in our lives? 

So now I realize that this guy (believe me, you don’t know 
him, he’s not on anyone’s radar) has an insecure need for constant 
female attention. He goes from girl to girl, vine to vine, without 
breaking up with the former girl, and all the while lying to both. 
This didn’t happen just to me, it’s his MO. It’s pathological—he 
actually thinks he can get away with this! And I guess he has, up ‘til 
now, and it makes me sick to think I was just a part of his scheme. 
But believe me, he fucked with the wrong girl this time! Duh. 

So there’s lying liars out there, running for mayor, who come in 
all sorts of pretty packages. Pull that ribbon at your own risk. But I’ve 
always been a sucker for bright-shiny-flashy things and just jump¬ 
ing right in. It’s like I still believe in unicorns, leprechauns, and 
gnomes and shit. Or Prince Charming? Yikes! And I know, I know, 
we can all just say humans suck, shit happens, life’s a beach, visual¬ 
ize whirled peas, and my other car’s a broom. OK, fine! Thanks for 
the revelation! But I swear this time I didn’t see this one coming. But 
then again, there were little things . . . there always are, right? 

Listen to me. Do as I say and not as I do. For me it’s like what 
pile-driver Margaret Cho says in her new book I Have Chosen to Stay and 
Fight , “Even though I advocate the freedom of all women to be happy 
in the bodies that they have, to love themselves because they are en¬ 
titled to ... I can’t seem to accomplish that contentment myself. I 
watch their emancipation from inside the prison walls of self-hate. 
I’m a hypocrite, and I deserve to be punished. The sick thing is, I’m 
guilty of not being able to stop punishing myself.” From childhood 
neglect, from living in an abusive household, to the loss of self-es¬ 
teem this sexist society imposes on girls, I learned to normalize dis¬ 
respectful behavior toward me. I learned to hang in there too long 
and put up with alotta guys’ bullshit. I can write an I’m-gonna-kick- 
yer-ass song about it, but the damage is already done. And I’m sup¬ 
posed to be the “Queen of the riotgrrrls!” ha ha . . . I’m begging you 
(myself?), trust your intuition girl, trust it—no matter how many 
times he lies to your face and how badly you wanna believe him. In 
the end, your intuition is the only thing you really got. 

I believe in sixth senses and other unsanctioned ways of know¬ 
ing/experiencing things, though I think I kinda lost it somewhere 
along the way, especially after my mother died. Some things crush 
you so completely. But if I’ve learned one thing about myself, in 
spite of several terrible things I’ve had to go through, I am resil¬ 
ient. Not only do I survive, I thrive. So fuck that dude—he can rot 
in his gnarly bad breath and the miserable emptiness he’s created 
for himself. The ultimate revenge is to live an awesome life. And 
that’s what my next column will be about, just you wait and see! 


PUNK PLANET 105 




A hog lies on 
the ground. A 
man raises a cin¬ 
der block into the 
air and drops it on 
her head, repeat¬ 
edly. A hog lies 
on the ground. A 
man hits her in the 
head with a mon¬ 
key wrench. You 
can hear the clanking sound as metal hits bone. Another man 
stands by and says something like “I think you got her” after the 
hog stops moving. Suddenly the hog spasms, her last bit of life 
expressing itself. The man with the wrench laughs and says “you 
sure about that?” Hogs scramble in narrow metal chutes, barely 
able to turn around. A man walking in the chute with a bolt gun 
repeats “I’m gonna get you . . . I’m gonna get you . . The man 
holds the bolt gun to a hog’s head and fires; the hog goes down 
squealing, trampled by the other hogs, which are panicking. 
The man turns his attention to another hog. He holds the gun 
to the hogs head and fires. Not a direct hit, the hog is still up 
and moving and in obvious terror and pain. “I missed you . . . 
I’m gonna get you . . .” Pigs, thousands of them, are crammed 
into a windowless warehouse, pushing into each other. Five 
or six pigs crowd around one to bite and pull at an open head 
wound, which has overtaken one eyeball and exposed skull and 
brains. The pig who is being eaten alive is trying to shake off 
the others but there is nowhere to go. Due to the stress of such 
intensive confinement these animals sometimes become can¬ 
nibals. A long line of hogs are suspended upside down from the 
ceiling by a chain wrapped around a back leg. They are strug¬ 
gling to right themselves or get free. One at a time they are 
dunked into a vat of boiling water, which removes their course, 
bristles and drowns them. The dead body is removed and falls 
onto a spinning bed, flipping the hog around, as if rolling. This 
is so the man who is blowtorching the animal’s body can access 
all sides to remove extra hair. In a windowless, blood-soaked 
room a cow is constrained inside a machine that looks like a 
miniature garbage truck. Only the cow’s head is sticking out of 
the machine. The machine turns 180 degrees vertical and the 
cow’s throat is exposed, towards the sky. A man “cleans” the up¬ 
side down cows throat while a Rabbi watches. The first man slits 
the cow’s throat with a huge knife and a fountain of blood erupts 
from the cow’s neck. Gallons of blood pour out on the man, on 
the floor. Once it has slowed, the man reaches into the cut and 
pulls the throat and esophagus out and it dangles, wet, dripping 
gore. A door opens on the side and the cow is dumped onto the 
floor where it writhes in it’s own and other’s blood. This is ko¬ 
sher slaughter. A veal calf is removed from her mother two days 
after birth and put in a dark pen in a warehouse with hundreds 
or thousands of others. The pen is so small the calf can’t move. 
Movement toughens the muscles, which lowers the quality, and 
thus the price, of the veal. The mother of this calf is injected 


with a cocktail of drugs and is put on mechanical milking ma¬ 
chines. The milk her body is producing was meant for that calf, 
which instead will be fed an iron deficient diet to keep the mus¬ 
cles soft and preferably white in color. The veal calves are killed, 
cut apart, and eaten. They are babies. Cows can live for up to 
20 years. Dairy cows live for four, as the stress of constantly 
being pregnant, giving birth, and going back on the milking 
machines works them so hard. Losing your child over and over 
perhaps also leads to this truncated lifespan. A cow can’t pro¬ 
duce milk unless she has given birth. This is the standard pro¬ 
cess by which the majority of milk, cheese, and all other dairy 
products are produced. When dairy cows are used up they are 
dragged, often literally, to slaughter for fast food meat. Slaugh¬ 
ter: a cow swinging upside down, moving down the line towards 
the knife. They are strung up with a chain by one of their back 
legs, which often break as they struggle. A man moves into the 
frame and cuts the living cows throat. Blood explodes from the 
wound, and pours out of the cows mouth and nose and down the 
drain on the floor. If the cow struggles just so, her body starts to 
spin and the blood sprays out onto the walls, the man with the 
knife, anything within range. The killing room is all metal and 
concrete with pitched floors that lead to drains so all the blood 
can easily be washed away with a hose. A low, endless seeming 
warehouse is filled with thousands and thousands of chickens. 
These chickens are called “broilers” and will be eaten. A tall, 
skinny man wades through the sea of birds with an easy gait, 
carrying a pipe or a stick. Seemingly at random he swings the 
pipe, bringing it down hard on one of the birds. Then another. 
Then another. They don’t die on the first blow, though their 
bodies and wings seem to be broken as they flap and flop as best 
they can away from the pipe. This isn’t how they are slaughtered 
however. The slaughter, like the cows and pigs, comes from a 
knife slash to the throat. “Layer” hens, which are raised for egg 
production, have their beaks seared off by a hot blade when they 
are chicks. This is because it is not uncommon for them, due 
to the stress of having the equivalent of a notebook paper sized 
amount of space in which to live their short lives, to cannibal¬ 
ize and peck to death other birds. Often these birds then live 
standing on top of the rotting corpses of their fellow birds. This 
is how the overwhelming majority of eggs are produced. 

Pork. Beef. Chicken. Dairy. Eggs. Standard practice. 

The scenes I described I saw last night at a screening of the 
film Earthlings. Many scenes are more brutal than the ones I’ve re¬ 
counted, as I’ve stuck to the portion on food production only. Af¬ 
ter, I sat in my car in the rain and cried, a combination of sadness 
and rage—a sadness and rage I think anybody would feel if they saw 
how animal foods are produced. If you consume animal products, 
you are complicit in the cruelty and horror involved in their pro¬ 
duction. And I cannot believe most people, if they had to watch, 
would want that. 


(t JOSH % 

^ HOOTEN Jf 


Alumni Ttlicritcc 


106 PUNK PLANET 







r 


T here she is 
again. Still. In 
the back of my head, 
singing, singing al¬ 
ways. 

I’m sitting in 
the back corner 
of a large marble- 
floored room, fac¬ 
ing a husband and 
wife with their legs 
crossed, their eyes closed, above their heads two large black- 
screened TV’s. I am on the woman’s side. It’s the fourth day of 
a IO-day silent meditation retreat, and I’m trying to follow the 
directions of the audio-recorded guru who tells me to move my 
awareness through different parts of my body, despite the pres¬ 
sure in my brain that makes it almost impossible to even remain 
conscious. This is something different than the dreamlike oth¬ 
erworldly vision-as-reality state I’ve been swimming through for 
days. This is more like I got smashed in the head with a hammer. 
I’m afraid I will lose it, lose myself, fall out of my chair and wake 
up not knowing what happened. 

The visions are most intense in the morning. This morning 
I was visited by a drag queen singing me a ballad about what we’re 
going through here. She lounged on a piano bench and gestured 
toward the rows of meditators as they sat in excruciating stillness 
on their mats and cushions. “This is not the last day of our en¬ 
lightenment, • it’s not the final hour,” she sang. “For so long, we 
suffered in silence for our fathers, but now we re on our own . . . 
On our own . . .” 

The little girl in the back of my mind, she liked the song a lot. 
She won’t stop singing it now. She’s writing more words. I can’t 
shut her up. I keep thinking maybe if I can get her to be quiet then 
the pressure will stop, my brain will resolve within itself and I’ll 
get to feel whole. 

I first heard about Vipassana more than IO years ago. Ten 
days of silent meditation—no reading, no writing, no music, no 
eye contact. No arguing about the philosophy or politics of the 
practice. Ten plus hours a day of meditation, starting at 4 : 3° a.m. 
No meals after noon. “I would die,” I said. But now? I chose to 
come here. I know how strong I am, but the fear is still there. Parts 
of me are screaming “this is a cult! They want to control you! They 
don’t understand you! You’re going to leave here more damaged 
than you already were!” Over and over I remind myself that I get 
to leave at the end of IO days. 

By the end of the fourth day I have convinced the assistant 
teachers that I need some protein in the evenings, and they prom¬ 
ise to set out some toast, peanut butter, and soymilk for me at tea- 
time tomorrow. I’m not sure if it was necessary for me to break 
down into hysterics in order to get my request met, but they lis¬ 
tened when I explained that I grew up on starvation diets and I can’t 
do this kind of work if I feel light-headed and out of my body. 


Walking the gravel path back to my bed in Dorm D, the pres¬ 
sure in my head has not let up. I tried everything. When the sing¬ 
ing wouldn’t stop I visualized sending her into the fire, that tough 
five-year-old with her short haircut and white nightie. Laying in 
my bed I try to relax against the vice grip in my head and spine. 
“Don’t fight it,” I tell myself, not knowing who’s talking to whom. 
The pressure turns into a vibration that grows until it feels like a 
fire hose got turned on in my brain, it rolls through the gray mat¬ 
ter, pulsing in sections. I surprise myself by still being able to have 
thoughts even as I observe the vibrations of my physical brain. I 
notice that the singing has stopped for the moment. The pressure 
is less but not gone. 

Day five I watch two mosquito-eaters have sex for like fifteen 
minutes. Sometimes the one on top traps the other one under¬ 
neath and they lay there still, and sometimes the underneath one 
drags the other one around. Later in the day I watch dust motes 
in the air. I feel like the most special person in the world when I 
see a plate and cup on the table at tea, with my name and a smiley 
face on it. Dry, hard crunchy half-burnt toast with a thin layer of 
peanut butter on one of the two slices, and a cup of sweetened soy¬ 
milk. I am so lucky. 

Day eight I’m trying to recreate the vibration in my brain, 
desperate to alleviate the pressure. “I submit, I submit, I want to 
learn. What do I have to do?” Dqyouacceptjesuschristasjourpersonallor- 
dandsavior. . . whoa. That was my brain. I guess that came from the 
Mormons or the Shriners of my childhood. I don’t even bow at the 
end of meditations. 

As much as the guru-dude says this is not a dogma, we are def¬ 
initely being brainwashed. The basic teaching is useful, but by the 
ninth day we’re all sitting here deep in our bodies and this man’s 
voice is giving us a sermon about our “deep, deep misery.” At the 
end of his big speech I watch another woman storm out with her 
hand over her mouth, and I take a walk to blow off steam about feel¬ 
ing trapped. I pick blackberries and take them to the freaked out 
lady. I wonder if I could get kicked out for doing that. So far getting 
in trouble looks like a friendly smiling face whispering instruc¬ 
tions. Does it turn into a snarling monster if you cross a line? 

On the IOth day we practice a new type of meditation, now 
that we re all boot-camped into submission, infuse everything 
with love. The singer in my head is back and louder than ever. 
She even has backup music now. I let her steer the ship. Love is 
dangerous. My whole body is buzzing. I feel like another being. I 
open my eyes and look at the assistant teacher in her meditation, 
open my energy to her, send her a pulse and watch her nod. Do it 
again, she nods, then turns to her partner. Whoa, what am I do¬ 
ing. I watch myself. 

When silence is broken and we re finally allowed to talk to 
each other I feel insane love for everyone around me. Even and 
especially the people who bugged me during our silent co-exis¬ 
tence. Anyone who’s willing to go through this is pretty fucking 
badass. I can’t stop talking, telling people what I think. I feel so 
interesting. 



P U N K P L A N E T 107 








Home is where, when 
jou go there, they have 
to letjou in. 

—Robert Frost 

I ’ve been laid 
up for a couple 
weeks following 
foot surgery, un¬ 
able to walk, un¬ 
able to do much 
at all except lie around waiting to get better. The first week wasn’t 
bad, despite the pain being at its worst then. I realized I’d been 
waiting all my life for the chance to stay in bed all day, sleeping, 
reading, goofing off on the Internet, without having to feel guilty 
about being a lazy bum. Then I started going a little stir crazy. 
My room was more luxurious than a prison cell, but I was just as 
trapped inside it. And this prison had no guards bringing me 
food or life’s other necessities. 

I was pleasantly surprised when friends and neighbors 
pitched in to cook for me, take me to the doctor, run errands, and 
in general make my existence as pleasant as any existence involv¬ 
ing a carved up foot is likely to be. I was especially surprised be¬ 
cause this happened in Berkeley, California. Not that I thought 
Berkeleyans were less charitable than anyone else, just that I 
haven’t really lived here for the last IO years. If people were that 
kind to someone who’s practically a stranger, I wondered, what 
would it be like if I called this place home? 

It was my home once, but as with everywhere I’ve lived, I got 
restless and hit the road. I’ve been doing that since I left Detroit at 
the age of Ij, and would have done it sooner if the law or my par¬ 
ents had allowed it. I was in search of greener pastures, of course, 
but looking back I can see something else at work, an uneasiness 
of the soul that made me toss everything and everybody aside and 
move on to parts unknown whenever things started feeling too fa¬ 
miliar. If I’d lived in frontier times, I would have been, as Huck 
Finn put it, always lighting out for the territories. 

At the same time, I’m fascinated by people who don’t feel the 
need to tear around the world in search of the next “right place,” and 
similarly by people who do move around, yet seem to feel at home 
wherever they land. I once asked the Weakerthans’John Samson why 
he’d never felt impelled to live anywhere besides his hometown of 
Winnipeg. He spoke glowingly about the value of being anchored, 
connected to people in a community, but added, “Community is an 
easy word to say, but an incredibly difficult one to put into practice.” 

Aaron Cometbus, whose well-documented wanderings have 
caused some to dub him a modern-day Kerouac (not a comparison 
he relishes, I should say), is nonetheless preaching a similar gospel. 
Although he’s lived in far more places than I have, the operative word 
is “lived.” Unlike Kerouac, he wasn’t passing through in search of a 
quick thrill; he went to a place to become part of it, to find out what 
made it tick and leave something of himself when he was gone. 



It was Aaron who told me about Santiago, a (relatively) new band 
from Santa Rosa, California. That I had to hear about them from 
Aaron, some thousands of miles away, speaks volumes about how I’ve 
kept up connections to my own community: Santiago’s singer is Gabe 
Meline, someone I’ve known for more than half his life. 

Santiago recently released an album, Rosenberg’s After Dark, that 
delves deeply into the concepts of home and community. On one level 
it’s an extended love song to Santa Rosa, once a sleepy town of S>5>000, 
now a sprawling exurb of 150,000, situated about an hour north of 
San Francisco. But despite its specific local references—Rosenberg’s, 
for example, was a department store whose closure epitomized the 
decline of Santa Rosa’s once vibrant downtown—it could be the tale of 
any town. Especially if it’s a bit off the beaten track, and teeming with 
talented young people hard pressed to see any way of following their 
dreams short of packing up and getting out. 

Santiago’s message is that it doesn’t have to be that way. It’s 
not that Gabe himself hasn’t tried it; he once moved briefly to 
Portland, Oregon, a departure deemed so newsworthy that the 
Santa Rosa Press-Democrat’s chief columnist devoted an entire ar¬ 
ticle to “Gabe Meline Leaving Town.” 

He wouldn’t have gone, he says now, had there not been a girl 
involved, and was relieved when she decided to move back. He’s 
been in Santa Rosa ever since, with no plans to leave again apart 
from taking Santiago on the road this spring to carry their “No 
place like home” message to towns and villages across the land. 

If I sound facetious, I don’t mean to. I’ve spent time in Santa 
Rosa myself, and though I’ve never been its biggest fan, RosenbergsAfter 
Dark casts it in an entire new light, makes it sound positively beguil¬ 
ing. In a lonesome, bittersweet way, of course. The opening track 
features a random soundscape from an empty, long-past-midnight 
downtown; the echoing beeps of traffic signals and the occasional 
swoosh of a passing car echo the desolation, desperation, and yes, ex¬ 
hilaration I’ve felt in so many of my own late-night wanderings. 

The songs that follows are rich, textured—far more so than the 
fluffy pop-punk I usually listen to—and haunting, filled with yearn¬ 
ing for a past that casts long shadows and a future that never breaks 
completely free of those shadows. Despite titles like “We All End Up 
At Eggen & Lance” (the town mortuary), they also seethe with opti¬ 
mism and hope. Instead of brooding over the fate of living in a less 
than perfect town, they evoke a desire to rush out and savor the place, 
to look with new eyes and listen with new ears for what had always 
seemed to be missing but was merely hiding in plain sight. 

Gabe’s always been a gifted musician but now seems to have 
truly found his voice. That probably has a lot to do with the talents 
of Josh Drake and Kyle Lindauer, his compatriots in Santiago, but 
I suspect it’s even more because he’s finally realized his passion 
and followed it. Good advice for any aspiring artist or musician, 
but as John Samson said about community, easier to say than to 
put into practice. 

If you want to hear more about these ideas—or just some 
great music—I highly recommend the record. It’s on a label called 
Pandacide, and like everything else these days, I’m sure you’ll be able 


108 PUNK PLANET 







to find it on the interweb. In the meantime, let Gabe himself explain 
what’s so great about Santa Rosa — or wherever else you call home: 
“It’s 90 percent what you make of it . . . and the more time you spend 
not being a dick, the more you impact your community, the more you 
adapt to your environment and vice versa, the more you’ll be happy 
with the place that you live.” 

Anything else? “Yes. The thriving and unsung community of 
artists, writers and musicians beating ceaselessly and proactively 
against the current of big box homogenization and transplanted 
wine dilettantes. And Marvell’s Cafe.” 

A CASE FOR NEUROSIS AND 
BUREAUCRACY 

When did neu¬ 
rotic personalities 
get such a bad rap? 
When did neuro¬ 
sis become a trait 
so easily dismissed? 
Sure, a person who 
is too neurotic may 
be socially abrasive. 
But that’s always the case with too . . . even too nice is a character flaw 
in these ruinous times. 

The plight of neurosis reminds me of comedian Bill Hicks 
defending narcotics. “If you don’t think drugs have done good 
things for us, do me a favor,” Hicks said, “go home and take all 
your albums, tapes, CDs . . . and burn them. ‘Cause you know 
what? All those musicians who made that great music that has en¬ 
hanced your lives throughout the years . . . ? Real fucking high on 
drugs.” 

Similarly, I would suggest, if you don’t think neurosis is ben¬ 
eficial to our society, go burn all your books. Cause most of those 
phenomenal writers were real fucking neurotic. 

Without neurotic people, little would ever get accomplished. 
I’m not arguing that neurosis is all good or anything. There’s def¬ 
initely a quixotic dynamic at play here: Everyone must figure out 
how to cope with one’s own stress, yet neurotic people can’t always 
keep their mouths shut and often aggravate social situations. (Not 
all neurotics; many of them, after all, are quite passive.) But in an 
era when “good ideas” are a dime a dozen, we need people who can 
actualize. A good idea without a better neurotic is doomed to re¬ 
main an unrealized abstraction. 

In late 2006 , neurosis is a personality condition spread 
across the globe; it can quickly be identified and documented in 
any major city in either hemisphere. I would call it a global urban 
phenomenon, but that would overlook the legions of neurotics who 
inhabit suburban and, in some cases, rural environments. 

The blatant disrespect in our society toward neurosis is a 
tendency linked directly to the wholesale miscomprehension of 
bureaucracy. Bureaucracy, too, is summarily dismissed with rolls of 
the eyes and knowing looks. 


So many vital political organizations and movements in re¬ 
cent times have lacked bureaucratic structures to manage them 
and propel them forward. Not bureaucratic like some sullen, 
gray-faced man with a tie and an impenetrable frown: more like 
a social glue ensuring that fundamental organizational bases get 
covered. Take, for example, the concept of a “social safety net”; 
isn’t this just a fancier way of saying “humane bureaucracy”? 

So whoever you are, you besmirchers of neurosis and bureau¬ 
cracy, mind your step. ‘Cause neurosis is spreading like a benevo¬ 
lent wildfire around Asia, Latin America, Africa . . . even places 
like Macedonia and Iceland. Turn on the TV in any major city and 
you well inevitably catch a strong whiff of localized neurosis. 

Bureaucracies can harness neurosis to dramatic effect. Yet 
the role of bureaucracies is too often overlooked, and they are not 
capitalized upon as forces for channeling neurosis in a positive 
direction. Consequently, neurotic energy, particularly in politi¬ 
cal and professional endeavors, frequently drops into a dysfunc¬ 
tional free-fall. 

The future for neurosis is nonetheless bright, as its prolif¬ 
eration is outpacing even global capitalism. Sadly, the same can¬ 
not be said for bureaucracy. Since many people in the world have 
experienced some form of subjugation under large bureaucracies 
in their own lands, they develop negative associations. The Soviet 
Union single-handedly thwarted Americans’ concept of bureau¬ 
cracy for decades. 

Now the redefinition must begin. There is no Cold War, 
there is no Soviet Union, and bureaucracy is no longer being held 
captive by a right-wing media intent on bringing dysfunction to 
our political and social struggles. Rather than scorning neurotics 
and bureaucrats, they should be brought into your homes, invited 
to speak at your political salons, given awards when appropriate 
for their dedication and stick-to-itiveness. Sure, there’s always 
room for loose cannons and renegades in any social movement, 
but without neurotics and bureaucrats supplying organizational 
glue, persistence, and focus, we are doomed to impotence. 

When partnered with humane neurosis, creative bureaucra¬ 
cy can provide regenerative fuel for political movements, social 
justice organizations, and even small enterprises like skateboard 
stores and record labels. So quit rolling your eyes and treating 
neurotics and bureaucrats like social outcasts. Instead, celebrate 
their gifts, acknowledge them publicly, and, be your mind broad 
enough, physically embrace them. They have had their backs 
against the wall for too long. 

We need our neurotics and bureaucrats playing offense, not 
defense. 

Believe in possibility. Have faith in your fellow human be¬ 
ings. A warm hug can transform someone from too neurotic to 
unqualified neurotic, which will make them both easier to deal 
with and more effective comrades in struggles to make this too- 
unbureaucratic world a better place. 



PUNK PLANET 109 




Sally (Featuring: Lollipop the Rainbow Unicorn) 

by Elizabeth Crane 


T here is not one thing even a little bit 
sad about this story. This is pret¬ 
ty much the happiest story ever. If 
you’re all up into War and Peace or whichev¬ 
er, you won’t find it here. 

This story is about a woman who was 
always herself. What better story could 
there be than that? Plus it’s true, or most¬ 
ly true. It’s true enough. It’s true seeming. 

One presumes that Sally, is her 
name, started out being a girl who was 
always herself. You have heard it told that 
she was herself as a teenager, so it’s a logi¬ 
cal conclusion, even if it is hard to imag¬ 
ine. Because do you know any teenagers 
who are themselves? I doubt it. Teenag¬ 
ers are all about being other people. You 
so wish you’d known her when you were a 
teenager, but she was born in the 1970s, 
so she would have been in preschool at the 
time. Although Sally at four was probably 
more you than you are after all the thera¬ 
py. You don’t really know much about her 
life as a preschooler, so you don’t know 
whether her parents did anything really 
right or really wrong, and my feeling is 
that it doesn’t really matter. My feel¬ 
ing is that Sally became Sally regardless 
of whether or not her parents did any¬ 
thing right or wrong. Still, maybe if you 
had babysat for her or something, your 
life could have gone a different way. You 
could possibly have learned from her even 
then with regard to being yourself. I real¬ 
ize you’re fine now, but there were some 
ineffective years. We both know it. 

So but look at Sally. She’s That Girl 
looking at herself in the store window and 
seeing versions of herself all around the 
city except if That Girl had an eyebrow 
ring, big boots, and were a happy, funny 
revolutionary and there were no Donald 
Hollinger. Nothing that looks like Donald 
Hollinger, nothing that acts like Don¬ 
ald Hollinger, no ex-Donald Hollinger 
to be gotten rid of. No Donald Hollinger 
of any kind. It’s not that she doesn’t enjoy 
the company of men, you have heard that 
she does, it’s not even that she wouldn’t 


like the company of a nice man, you have 
heard this as well, it’s simply that having a 
man, even a nice one, is not critical to her 
being completely, joyfully Sally. Do you 
see what I’m saying. Do you know anyone 
like this. Probably not. But you should 
know Sally. You should be Sally. Fine, be 
yourself. But like Sally. 

From what you know, Sally as a teen¬ 
ager had like, beliefs. She had things that 
she believed in. I know, what’s that all about, 
right? But she did, and Sally made a deci¬ 
sion not to ever compromise her beliefs, 
which is, well, come on, who’s ever done 
that, not me and not you, because it’s hard, 
think about it, think about all the seem¬ 
ingly small compromises you’ve made in 
the category of people you’ve dated alone. 

It’s hard to know which choice was worse, 
Gene the judgmental environmental¬ 
ist (judgmenvironmentalist?) or Philip 
who thought it was his right to park ille¬ 
gally without paying tickets because his taxes 
more than covered it, which on his salary from 
Quizno’s you can be sure they did not. And 
how about that time you didn’t tell them 
they forgot to scan your Lucky Charms at 
the grocery store. Or that time you ate a 
Quarter Pounder (with cheese!) after you 
swore you’d never eat at McDonald’s again 
after reading Fast Food Nation. Or spend¬ 
ing actual cash money on a copy of Star 
magazine on impulse at the supermarket 
checkout because on the cover it alleged 
a prurient relationship between Jake and 
Maggie Gyllenhaal even though inside the 
title read “Jake and Maggie: Siblings!” 
which is what they always do and you should 
have known it, and you felt positively greasy 
afterward even though it was only 99 cents, 
you have to live with knowing that 99 cents 
of your money went to perpetuating more 
of this. (Not to mention more fanciful sce¬ 
narios like let’s say if some huge low-priced 
chain store that was known to use child la¬ 
bor in sweatshops in third world countries 
offered you three million dollars to be in 
their new ad campaign, at the very least 
you wouldn’t just say no flat out and prob¬ 


ably you even would think Helljes what values 
first before you thought the whole thing 
through to the point where you were con¬ 
flicted and were leaning toward a complex 
supposedly moral justification for go¬ 
ing through with it.) What about being 
best friends with Jessica Sandler in third 
grade because her dad took you to FAO 
Schwartz and bought you a Little Kiddle 
even though Jessica Sandler was kind of 
spoiled and bratty and even though she 
was mostly nice to you she was often mean 
to other people. Who wouldn’t be friends 
with Jessica Sandler for a Little Kiddle? 
Sally. Is who. No way would Sally sell out 
for a Little Kiddle. Sally was disappoint¬ 
ed in the world, a bit, but not in a dark 
despairing, Oh, I’ll just go mope around 
to a Morrissey record teenager kind of 
way, in a You know, I might be able to do 
a little something about this kind of way. 

Which is what she did. And you can 
imagine why, because who wouldn’t listen 
to such an engaging, funny chick? We al¬ 
ready know how easily influenced you are, 
what with your Jessica Little Kiddle his¬ 
tory so imagine what might happen if you 
met up with Sally, and she charmed you 
like she charmed me, and she said There’s 
this thing wrong with the world and this 
is what I tried to do about it, and whatever 
her story happens to be that day, because 
she has a lot of them, it will in some way 
be funny, and this story will make you 
feel like changing the world actually is 
possible, in bits and pieces anyway. What 
you especially admire about her is the way 
she’s not all, righteous or whichever, she’s 
not even, You kinda need to go do some 
stuff too. But it will happen because she’s 
that compelling. You will want to do what 
you can do. Try not to be disappointed 
if it doesn’t seem as cool as what Sally’s 
doing. Not possible. Making art is not 
unimportant. Tell yourself that. No seri¬ 
ously, try. 

Sally got her hand in like 16 pies 
from the get go. Seventeen if you count 
actual pies, which is something Sally en- 


110 PUNK PLANET 



FICTION 


joys and partakes in frequently. Zines and 
what have you. Princess Vanessa Lipstick McGil- 
licuddy Tells The Truth, her first zine, is leg¬ 
endary in certain circles. In zine- 
reading circles. You didn’t even know 
what a zine was before Sally. Sally is the 
kind of person who let’s just say for exam¬ 
ple if there’s an awful war going on, or if 
large numbers of people and even corpo¬ 
rations are opposed to similarly gendered 
people getting married, or if people are 
opposed to other people having opin¬ 
ions that are different than those people’s 
opinions, or if people are listening in on 
your phone calls and reading your emails 
and calling it security or I don’t know what 
else, unlike me and you, she won’t be like, 
What am I gonna do go march or some¬ 
thing? Because crowds freak me out and 
plus what’s the point. Sally might march 
or she might not, but what she will do 
is hang around the White House hold¬ 
ing a bunch of balloons, smiling, and get 
reporters to ask her why she was hanging 
around the White House holding a bunch 
of balloons, and then cheerfully tell them 
it seemed like a pleasant way to say she was 
against the war and would they like a bal¬ 
loon? Or maybe she’d do something like 
go into elementary schools calling herself 
“Storyteller Princess Vanessa Lipstick 
McGillicuddy” and then read fairytales 
and other books that she’d rewritten to 
get little girls to rethink the whole happy 
ending having to have a dude in it or that 
a Barbie-shaped body would be a sort of 
effective emotional problem solver of any 
kind and that maybe a happy ending was 
one where you stood outside the White 
House with a bunch of balloons. 

And more pies like this. Pies that never 
even occurred to you. 

A little-known fact about Sally is that 
she has several situation-specific super¬ 
powers. Let’s go back to the White House 
for example. Sally might discover, upon 
leaning against the front gates, that she 
suddenly had a rubbery quality that would 
allow her to slip right through. Think of 


the possibilities! I mean, rubbery is not 
the same as invisible, but if she could get 
through, think of what she could do on the 
inside of the White House with all those 
balloons! They wouldn’t know what to do. 
They would be all This lady with a pierced 
eyebrow came into the White House and 
gave out balloons! And someone with a lick 
of sense, like maybe a guard or a secre¬ 
tary who has no interest in party lines or 
anything, just wants to make her Kia pay¬ 
ments, says, So? And everyone else would 
go, So? So? So? And the lick of sense lady 
would say Yes, so, as in “so what” and the 
White House people would be like You 
can’t just give out balloons around here but 
no one can say why, exactly, or find a law 
that says you can’t, which is what they run 
around trying to do while Sally waits pa¬ 
tiently in the office of the press secretary, 
who listens to her opinion about the war 
and being against it, and exactly why, and 
this gets relayed to the media via the press 
secretary because that’s their job, to ex¬ 
plain things like how people with balloons 
get into the White House but to try to tell it 
in a way that it seems threatening but that 
they have it under control and even though 
they believe in freedom of speech they 
don’t believe in, well, balloons, maybe. You 
don’t know. 

On the rubbery front, she discov¬ 
ered while rehearsing for a school reading 
that she could grow herself a Barbie body. 
Freakish to be sure, but what a perfect il¬ 
lustration of how wrong that is, to see a 
Barbie body on a real person! But besides 
not wanting to freak the kids out, Sally 
feels like even she isn’t immune to abus¬ 
ing her superpowers. Like if there were 
some $2000 pair of the cutest chunky 
boots ever and she had the ability to psy¬ 
chically make salespeople offer her a 90 
percent discount, she knows she might 
do it. Plus even Sally doesn’t really know 
what all her superpowers are. Sometimes 
they just show up. The thing that’s impor¬ 
tant about this fact is that she doesn’t use 
them. She doesn’t think it’s fair. I’d use 


them if I were really in trouble, she says. 
But I haven’t had to yet. 

Fine. Maybe this is less true than 
I led you to believe at the outset. Maybe 
she doesn’t have superpowers. Maybe she 
kicked a boy in the knee once in grade 
school. Maybe he deserved it. Maybe she’s 
lonely, maybe her mom makes her com¬ 
pletely nuts sometimes. Maybe her dad 
reads the paper during dinner. Maybe she 
doubts herself, on occasion. Doesn’t mat¬ 
ter. All the better if one or more are true, 
then there’s more hope for you. You don’t 
think so. But you don’t need to know. 

Anyway then you find her. No, she 
finds you. She thinks there’s something 
aboutj>ou. How is that possible. Because 
of the art, she tells you, even though you 
hadn’t said that out loud. To which you 
say, But that’s what I like to do. To which 
she says, No kidding. To which you say, 
Well then, and Hm. 

One day she tells you a story about 
how she goes to the park with her new 
kite, and her new kite has a rainbow uni¬ 
corn on it she named Lollipop, except 
it’s not very windy so Lollipop isn’t get¬ 
ting a lot of air, except Sally doesn’t really 
mind, because she is cracking herself up 
that she has a kite with a rainbow unicorn 
named Lollipop. It’s like the most per¬ 
fect image of actual joy you’ve ever heard 
of, forget babies in pumpkins or which¬ 
ever, this is a grown woman frolicking 
and cracking herself up with a kite and 
a unicorn. It should be on the cover of 
a magazine, except it isn’t, because the 
magazines are clogged up with Jennifer 
Anistons always, as though there’s no one 
else, and maybe Jennifer Aniston isn’t a 
role model for every girl or woman, do 
you see, maybe the world would like other 
options. And you can relate, because 
sometimes you crack yourself up, which is 
probably why you like her. ® 

Elizabeth Crane is the recipient of the 2003 Chicago Public Library 21st Century Award and 
the author of When the Messenger is Hot and All This Heavenly Glory, as well as the upcom¬ 
ing short story collection Vou Must Be This Happy to Enter from Punk Planet Books. 


PUNK PLANET 111 





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Makin’ Yer Own Menstrual Pads 


By Anne Elizabeth Moore 

S topping the rampant flow of blood from yer ‘gina is al¬ 
ways fun, but here’s a way you can do it without the weird¬ 
smelling paper products, embarrassing run-ins down at 
the drug store, or endless costs of OTC tampons. Plus: your new 
menstrual pads will be as pretty as you can make 'em and totally, 
IOO percent reusable. 

First, grab yourself some thick flannel, preferably from an 
old shirt or some well-used sheets. This will quickly stain—a 
brownish red, FYI (see Fig G)—so make sure you choose a color to 
either highlight or downplay the eventual addition of your men¬ 
strual blood. If you’re looking to downplay it, think this over for 
a minute: those who are uncomfortable with menstrual blood in 
any way may not be so cool about makin’ and usin’ they own pads. 
Seriously, this is not for the faint of heart. 

If you can bear to go on, cut one piece of flannel into an 
oblong shape of about seven inches long and three inches wide, 
with “wings” on either side that should cross over when folded. 
(See Fig A.) 

Gut two additional pieces from the same flannel—basically 
this shape, halved. (Fig B and G) These will form the back of the 
pad, and should intersect slightly. Sew all three pieces together, 
as shown in the back view, Fig D. For a bit of color, use a brightly 
colored thread which will contrast with your flannel and hope¬ 
fully provide some amusement during those dark days of heavy, 
achy flow. Add either snaps or Velcro to the wings so they will close 
around your underpants (make sure to try it a few times to avoid 
the whole topside/downside confusion). 

Now cut two oblongs shapes—of about six and a half inches 
long, two and a half inches wide—and sew them together as seen 
in Fig E. These will fit inside the pocket of your new creation and 
provide extra padding (in the commercials they call it “protec¬ 
tion”), so make at least two. 

Your new reusable menstrual pad is now pret a porter (see 
Fig F). I’d advise making at least two for each of your regular days 
of flow, and a couple extra for your friends. Although I don’t use 
them when I travel—this would require a little more organization 
than I’m capable of—it is possible to use nothing but your hand¬ 
made rewashable pads for the rest of your childbearing years. Inga 
Muscio even suggested in Cunt that you rinse the blood right into 
your houseplants and, while nourishing life in this way always ap¬ 
pealed to me, my houseplants died before I got the chance to try it. 
But let me know how it goes! ® 



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114 PUNK PLANET 























food 


EVERYTHING THAT EATS, LIVES 

by stacey gengo 


Muster Mustard 

s a condiment, mustard is vastly underrated in the com¬ 
mercial market. A neon yellow sauce in a similarly colored 
plastic bottle is the American icon—ubiquitous at ballparks 
and summer barbeques. The irony lies in the name, “French’s.” 
Behind this unnatural yellow sauce is a versatile plant species. It 
is essentially a plant with small yellow flowers, green leaves, and 
long, thin seedpods containing pungent seeds. The condiment is 
from the seeds—first ground into pastes and powders. 

Like most other plants, mustard has culinary and medicinal 
properties. The basis of mustard’s healing properties stem from 
its heat essence. Once harnessed, it can cure many ailments since 
excess heat is often thought to be the source of illness and heat ap¬ 
plied to heat creates a cooling factor. Mustard is said to cure the 
common cold. The plaster of mustard, made from a seed paste, 
when applied to an inflamed area, aids in healing. 

The culinary uses of mustard are wide and varied. The 
greens are peppery in taste and part of the same family as brocco¬ 
li, Brussels sprouts, and kale. They are a staple of American soul 
cooking. As for the seeds, there are three types: yellow, brown, 
and black. Yellow mustard seeds, sometimes called white seeds, 
are less pungent in taste and larger than in size than the other 
seeds. Their mild manner makes them appealing to American 
mustard manufacturers. Brown seeds are a bit sharper in taste 
and commonly used for pickling. They are a staple in commercial 
European mustards, mainly because of their ease in mechani¬ 
cal harvesting. Basic English mustard blends these seeds with the 
yellow. Black mustard seeds are only harvested by hand since they 
are the smallest of the three. They are found most often in In¬ 
dian cooking. 

Powdered mustard is the product of finely ground seeds. 
Mustard seeds can be stored for up to a year in a dry, dark place, 
while powdered mustard is best used after six months. Prepared 
mustard is made from powdered mustard combined with season¬ 
ings and a liquid, usually vinegar, water, beer or wine. American 
mustard is made from the yellow seed and combined with vinegar, 
sugar, and turmeric (the color source). European and Chinese 
mustards use the brown seeds, like Dijon mustard, named for 
its point of origin. The widely known maker of Dijon, House of 
Poupon, is known in the US as Grey Poupon. German mustards 
vary in taste from sweet to very hot. Chinese mustards are hot and 
pungent. Unopened prepared mustard can be store in dark dry 
conditions for two years. Once opened, this mustard must be re¬ 
frigerated. 

Mustard making goes as far back as the early Romans, who 
are the reason mustard seeds appeared in Gaul and Britain. Mon¬ 
asteries became the first commercial artisans of mustard. By the 


fourteenth century, apothecaries were in on its creation. Mustard 
appeared stateside courtesy of Father Junipero Serra, who carried 
the seeds with him to California. 

The preparation of mustard is varied. It can be as coarse or 
finely ground as desired. The liquid addition is equally as di¬ 
verse. Using only mustard powder and water will produce a very 
hot sauce. The English powdered brand, Coleman’s, is an ex¬ 
ample of a popular mustard powder. On the opposite end, whole 
grain mustard is created using coarsely ground mustard seeds 
and water. 

The flavoring in brown and black mustard seed comes from 
the essential oil content, while yellow seeds contain a sulphur 
compound. When mixing seeds and liquid, the temperature of the 
liquid is important. Cold liquids intensify the flavor and spice. 
Applying heat or hot water reduces the intensity but sacrifices 
some zest. When adding mustard to the cooking process it is best 
to add it last in order to preserve the flavor. 

Mustard seeds are usually found at Indian markets or, pos¬ 
sibly, in the spice section of local health-food stores. Grinding 
the seeds using a mortar and pestle produces a nice coarse grind, 
while an electric coffee grinder is ideal for fine powders. Use a 
separate grinder since the oils will be difficult to remove and may 
give your coffee an unusual taste. 

When making mustard at home, flavors should be allowed to 
develop for 24 hours. Vary the texture and flavor to your desired 
taste. Experiment using different liquids: white or red wine vin¬ 
egar, wine, beer, grape juice, and cider, for example. Here’s good 
basic mustard (adapted from Lynn Alley). 


Grind 4 tablespoons of brown and yellow mustard seeds to your 
desired texture. 

Add the ground seeds to Va cup mustard powder. Mix thoroughly. 

Add about a Va cup of cold water to the mixture. Blend. Let stand 
10 minutes. 

Add a couple tablespoons of vinegar, or beer, or wine—your preference 
and a teaspoon of salt to the mixture. Refrigerate. 

Let stand 24 hours before using. 


If you’d rather purchase your mustard, check out the 
Mount Horeb Mustard Museum in Mount Horeb, Wiscon¬ 
sin. They have over 4 * 3 °° j ars prepared mustard in the 
collection, as well as an online mustard store. Visit them at: 
www.mustardweb.com ® 



PUNK PLANET 115 











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Between the Buried and Me, and 
Through The Eyes Of The Dead. — 


lor fans of: Norma Jean,»H§] 
flying, and .Everytime I Die 


Produced by Jamie King 


Produced by Paul Winer * 


My Bitter End 

The Renovation 


This Moment 

Star<Paraiie! 


www.uprisingrecords.com 







































CHECK OUT PtRATESPRESSRECORDS.COM FOR MORE INFORMATION 




























MUSC 


The Blow-Paper Television, CD 

Fellow fan Austin English and I have been 
arguing about the recent Blow album Pa¬ 
per Television-sort of. We agree on the 
details: it’s angrier, tighter, and more re¬ 
actionary than her previous work, and con¬ 
tains some of the danciest and poppiest 
songs. They’re catchier than I’d ever have 
imagined from her had I not actually heard 
them in concert before-radio-ready, 
practically begging for a teen following, 
but smart and fun and actually deserving of one. 

We disagree, however, on whether this is a positive development in the oeuvre of the 
thoughtful and contemplative Khaela Maricich and bandmate Jona Bechtolt. 

It is, I say: anger’s a lost form in the world of pop music and, frankly, the world can use more 
models for how to deal with rage over fucked-up relationships, gender politics, and our general¬ 
ly screwy world. “I guess I’m on the long list of girls who love the shit out of you / We know what 
not to expect it’s about what we’ll get out of you,” the chorus of “The Long List of Girls” goes. 

But Austin makes an excellent point too: the Blow’s previous work has all been about how 
hard love is, and how important. No sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows from Maricich, though: 
just thriving vitality in subject matter and form. Previous albums, Austin tells me, were “more 
like ‘it is incredibly hard to have real love for people and it takes a lot of work but you have to 
do the work.’ At least that’s what I got from her. And I just don’t see that it Paper Television... 
on her other albums I think she’s making really great points about boy/girl dynamics, but... 
this album seems more angry then smart. It’s a polemic against boys (in a lot of places).” And 
he’s right. “If something in the deli aisle / Makes you cry / So of course I put my arm around 
you and I walk you outside / Through the sliding doors / Why would I mind?” is one holdover 
from these maybe bygone days, from “Parentheses.” But there is overall more anger on Paper 
Television. Even though he’s a boy, Austin has a good point. 

Maricich has also moved, however, from the universal to the local, and songs that used to 
be about the general ways of the world or characters almost anyone you know could embody 
now seem to be about Maricich’s personal, and not always great, relationships with boys. “It 
gets hard,” she even admits on “Fists Up”. And later: “It was perfect, you know, with just one 
little problem / The fact that it turns out you don’t really want it.” It’s true, the songwriter 
seems a bit defeated. Deflated. Vincible. Which means also that her writing is sharper and more 
incisive. And ultimately, maybe a bit more honest. 

The album’s inconsistent-Austin and I agree that the French song in the middle is aggra¬ 
vating, although for different reasons. And it’s true, the Blow seems to have lost something on 
this album. A bit of a drive for that world domination, some of the ridiculous egotism that, far 
from being annoying, actually secured a place for Maricich at the center of the world. Yet in put¬ 
ting her ambition aside, she’s cleared some space in her heart to dance. And I don’t care what 
Austin says, I’ll take the anger if it’s got a good beat. -Anne Elizabeth Moore 

KRecordswww.krecs.com 


Deicide - The Stench of Redemption, CD 

This is going to be a difficult review to write. 
Deicide were, via their second album Le- 
g/on—along with Morbid Angel-my first 
exposure to death metal way back in eighth 
grade. Flash forward 14 years and five studio 
albums and we arrive at 2006’s The Stench 
of Redemption. 

The album’s title seems to have a double 
meaning. After the messy departure of two 
original members, Brian and Eric Hoffman 
(who also served as the band’s guitarists), many questions remained: who would replace 
them? Is the band breaking up? How can Deicide go on after 16-plus years of a single, original 
lineup? And the most important question: what the fuck? Well, the band did play on, replac¬ 
ing the brothers Hoffman almost immediately with Ralph Santolla (ex-Death, Iced Earth) and 
ex-Cannibal Corpse member Jack Owen. Deicide has persevered and are in the process of 
redeeming their name as death metal’s badwill ambassadors. Although of course “redemp¬ 
tion” can also be viewed as salvation from personal sin via Jesus’s sacrifice, which is right up 
Deicide’s satanic alley. 

A small part of me dislikes Deicide, honestly. After admitting that they released two 
shitty albums (2000’s Insineratehymn and 2001’s In Torment in Hell ) just as a means of 
getting out of their supposedly bad contract with Roadrunner really hurt longtime fans. 
Granted, I didn’t buy either of those albums-my bullshit detector was on high alert after 
skipping Insineratehymn due to lack of funds and then hearing a promo of In Torment-but 
hearing them admit this made me wary of future endeavors. 2003’s Scars of the Crucifix was 
pretty good, though, so I welcomed them back with one of those awkward hugs you give 
a relative you barely know or that you get from a woman that doesn’t want to squash her 
boobs against you. 

The Stench of Redemption was my first time since Legion that I really approached the 
band as a fan. I had no promo (in fact, I won the copy I own in a Deicide contest I entered on 
a whim while editing the last issue of Punk Planet ), and the first time I heard anything off 
the album was when my girlfriend and I were Tivo-skimming Headbanger’s Ball and saw 
the video for “Homage for Satan.” The first thing I thought was, “The vocals are way too 
high in the mix.” 

This thought crossed my head again when I got the CD in the mail and popped it into the 
car stereo, but has since subsided slightly upon repeated listens. The mix overall, actually, is a 
little weird. Steve Asheim’s drums are somewhat lost, especially the bass drums, but sound 
awesome when blasting along with the guitars (particularly in “Not of This Earth”). And guitars 
are the most important element of the new record. 

Owen and Santolla bring a different approach to this album. The riffs are more focused, 
but at the same time more loose and natural feeling. Gone is the feeling of autopilot. The 
solos are also different. Rather than just a jumble of notes and some cool dive-bombs here 
and there (although bassist and vocalist Glen Benton claims that Santolla has been writing 




120 PUNK PLANET 








A bout our reviews: We make every attempt to review all the records we receive (CD’s, CD-R’s, and vinyl only-as long as they’re not released on a major label or one of its subsidiaries), but we reserve the right to not review something if we 
feel it isn’t appropriate for Punk Planet. Also, due to the insane volume of mail we receive, some releases fall through the cracks. We’re bi-monthly, so it can take up to five months for something to appear in the magazine, so send stuff 
early, and send it with as much contact information as possible. CD-R’s that aren’t promotional copies from labels or from CD-R only labels end up in the demo section, and reissues have their own section as well. Records marked with a picture 
of the album cover have been deemed noteworthy by that specific reviewer, for better or worse, and reviews under 100 words exclusively appear online at www.punkplanet.com. Please keep in mind that when sending your review, it might 
get trashed. The review is only that reviewer’s opinion and doesn’t necessarily reflect the opinion of the entire magazine. Personally, I love Decapitated, but I think I’m in the minority over here. See what I’m saying? Any questions, concerns, or 
accolades can be directed to Dave Hofer at reviews@punkplanet.com. Please DO NOT call the office, as Dave is not there full-time. Thank you. Send your stuff to: Punk Planet, 4229 North Honore, Chicago, II60613. 

This issue’s review team: Abbie Amadio (AJA), Eric Action (EA), Dan Agacki (DA), Bill Angelbeck (BA), Mike Barron (MB), Joanna Buchmeyer (JB), James Cardis (JJC), Mairead Case (MC), Jay Castaldi (JC), Vincent 
Chung (VC), Art Ettinger (AE), Kristen Grayewski (KG), Eric Grubbs (EG), Ari Joffe (AJ), Steve Kane (SK), Chay Lawrence (CL), Justin Marciniak (JM), Krystle Miller (KM), Steve Mizek (SRM), Sean Moeller (SM), Sarah 
Moody (SBM), Scott Morrow (SJM), Brian Moss (BM), Bart Niedzialkowski (BN), Missy Paul (MP), Rex Reason (RR), Matt Siblo (MS), Justin Vellucci (JV), Mike Vinikour (MXV). Edited by Dave Hofer (DH) 


solos for the band for years), the solos are melodic, flowing, and fit seamlessly in-between 
riffs, rather than abruptly ending before the next part begins. The songs also run a little lon¬ 
ger, a good amount of them topping the four-minute mark, which makes the album over 40 
minutes long... a little too long to have a forceful impact. In fact, “The Lord’s Sedition” has 
a long-ass intro unlike anything heard from Deicide before which causes the song to hit 5:47! 
Once again: what the fuck? 

Closing the album is another Deicide first: a cover. Of who, you ask? Deep Purple! Huh? 
Pretty humanizing, actually, that Deicide can admit to non-Satan-based influence. It’s almost 
like they’re saying, “C’mon, fans. You know as well as we do that we’re just four guys in a band. 
Please don’t take this too seriously.” 

Finally, the lyrics are typical Benton: Thesaurus-based Satanic posturing with no real mes¬ 
sage, clarity, or staunch position, other than that Satan is great for some reason. But, these 
lyrics have to be taken for what they are: part of a death metal band. The genre wouldn’t exist 
if it weren’t for these types of lyrics, so once again, Deicide gets a pass. 

My relationship with Deicide is back on solid ground thanks to The Stench of Redemption, 
but I’m curious as to what the future brings with this new lineup. -Dave Hofer 

Earache, earache.com 


Magnolia Electric Co - Fading Trails, CD 

“Darling, you faded on me.” So begins 
another album in the storied timeline of 
Jason Molina, this time under the guise 
of Magnolia Electric Co. Prior to this name 
he had stayed behind the moniker Songs: 
Ohia, releasing close to a dozen lovely, 
bleak albums, culminating with a record 
using the current namesake as its title. 
At first, it seemed Magnolia Electric Co 
intended to branch off and explore the 
possibilities of a more countrified rock band behind the music, as opposed to solely Molina 
and a handful of contributors, but the few releases put out under this name make it a dif¬ 
ficult project to pin down. 

The first release, put forth in 2005, was a large, ramshackle live album ( Trials and Errors); 
the second a subdued studio effort (Whdt Comes After the Blues), and after a quick EP, we have 
Fading Trails. A great deal of separate situations went into the making of this record, as the 
nine tracks here were culled from four different studio sessions, each with a separate name, 
producer, and a host of different band members. It is an intriguing approach, to be sure, but 
ultimately makes the record as rewarding as it is frustrating. 

Each session was given a name—Nashville Moon, Black Ram, Sun Studios, and Shohola- 
and it would seem as though Molina just closed his eyes and picked the handful of songs he 
could tolerate most from each batch. The variety of sounds and sonics used in each session 
causes Fading to come across as a rarities compilation, incapable of focusing in one direction. 
All of the usual suspects appear here: devils and pale moonlight; crows and north stars’ fol¬ 



lowing dark roads; ghosts and the moon and leaving and forgetting; all of the women and the 
landscapes and remembering them all too well. Here, Molina continues to explore his preoccu¬ 
pation with the blues, but also starts to leave the songs behind before making his point. “Mont¬ 
gomery Bound,” for one, is a huge rocker, but cuts out abruptly before the two-minute mark. 
The atmosphere is not as leavened, less planned; Molina tackles a good number of these tracks 
unaccompanied. Perhaps counter-intuitively it finally sounds like he knows what he wants. 

It is curious to see the direction this reincarnation has taken since What Comes After the Blues 
was released, only a year ago. For the most part, the shifty bombast of a band effort is gone, and 
there are no smoothed-over studio tracks here. No heartstring-pullers like “Hard to Love a Man” 
either, though “Steady Now” comes close, as Molina uses his gorgeous warble of a howl to bring 
the album to an end. Mostly it just sounds like an intentionally under-produced album, and it is 
nearly impossible to differentiate the studio tracks from the demos. “A Little at a Time” in par¬ 
ticular starts off with muffled street noise, even though it was recorded in a studio setting. The 
comparative minimalism of these songs should be of no complaint for any fan of Songs: Ohia, but 
it does come in stark contrast to other Magnolia Electric Co releases. Even the longer, extended 
tracks from Trials and Errors are gone here, and many songs barely reach past the three-min¬ 
ute mark. Midwest blues in a nutshell—is that even possible? These aren’t compositions in the 
traditional sense, and without many aspects of the previous flourishes and final touches, it just 
doesn’t sound like a band, which is perhaps part of the point. Scattered as it is, it becomes more 
of a continuation of the ideas begun in Songs: Ohia but roughly translated into the new effort. 

Fading Trails is an album that switches the initial reasoning behind the moniker, building it 
down instead of up, and allowing Molina to reclaim his place as songwriter as opposed to band 
leader. As he falls back into something more familiar, the music becomes less epic, although 
there’s certainly more a mystery to it. Unfortunately, as “Montgomery Bound” proves, the 
mystery too often quits right as it starts to show promise, building to a climax that doesn’t 
necessarily exist. 

This is slow-burning Americana with a Midwest bend, boiled down until reduced and 
concentrated. A little bit weary, a little bit haunted, the album is both pained and personal as 
Molina continues to build upon his own elusive narrative. A dark road and an open night, driv¬ 
ing across deserted black plains into nowhere-consider this another chapter to tack onto his 
already murky mythology. -Scott Morrow 

Secretly Canadian, 1499 W. 2 nd St, Bloomington, IN 47403, secretlycanadian.com 

Swallows - Me With Trees Towering, CD 

If you believe the weird, weird world of modern 
music, then the Swallows don’t really exist. 
There are several reasons why. 1) They’re on the 
small and independent Cherchez La Femme 
Projects, a post-Mr Lady label that’s basically 
operated out of Sarah Dougher’s kitchen. (She 
sells organic doggie treats from there, too.) 2) 
They’re from Portland, which is not east of the 
Mississippi and thus way, way the heck off the 



PUNK PLANET 121 










REVIEWER SPOTLIGHTS 


Reviewer Spotlight: Eric Action (EA) 

Childish, Billy, Play: Capt’n Calypso’s Hoodoo Party. Featuring 11 tracks of the mighty 
Childish (along with some friends) doing calypso versions of your favorites, Capt’n 
Calypso’s Hoodoo Party is my party album when I need a pick-me-up. Whether you 
want punk accordion, “Anarchy in the UK,” or an overblown version of "Three Blind 
Mice,” you cannot go wrong with this disc. Be warned-this isn’t a novelty record. Billy and the boys (and 
gals) are having serious fun. Properly sounding like it was recorded in a sweaty, dirty nightclub, Calypso’s 
Hoodoo Party always pleases a crowd at any party. My eight-year-old son loves singing along to this one in 
the car at loud volumes, and many of the songs get stuck in your head, for sure. Sometimes I feel Childish can 
do little wrong; in fact, if I was stuck on a desert island, I would take the 70 or so Childish LPs in my collection 
over any other artist. Especially when you count all of his bands, he has done nearly every genre. Sure, he 
recycles songs, band after band, album after single, and will release an album by swapping the gals for the 
fellas on vocals. The thing about Childish is that it doesn’t matter. You appreciate the songs you know and the 
new treatment they’re given, all while enjoying a new song or two along the way. Disregarding his poetry or 
paintings, it is still impossible to find a more productive artist of his quality. Not an easy find for even the fans 
of the master, Play: Capt’n Calypso’s Hoodoo Party is worth tracking down. 

Currently spinning retro late eighties: ALL, Lemonheads, Lyres, Husker Du, and ‘80s Fall... nice mix, huh? 

Reviewer Spotlight: Dan Agacki (DA) 

Lemonheads, It’s a Shame About Ray. The timing of this spotlight is perfect. As I write 
this, tomorrow marks the release of the first Lemonheads record in 10 years! To say 
that I’m overjoyed would be an understatement. That fact combined with the recent 
surge in ‘90s alterna-rock nostalgia made this pick a no-brainer. I’m not sure why I 
even bought this album in the first place. I probably saw the video for “Mrs. Robinson” on Alternative Nation 
or something. When eighth grade rolled around and I had to ride the bus to school every day, It’s a Shame 
About Ray was my Walkman tape nine out of 10 days. I still listen to that same tape copy quite frequently. The 
fact that a tape has lasted 13 years and thousands of plays is a pretty amazing feat. When Kurt Cobain burnt 
out on being the poster boy for “alternative rock,” Evan Dando was the perfect guy to take over the throne. 
His rarely matched vocals and pop-rock sensibilities laid all others in the dust. It’s a Shame About Ray was 
the peak of the Lemonheads’ existence. Sure, those early Dando/Deily albums were great, but they never 
reached consistency in the early days. Here’s hoping that the new one is at least half as good as this album. 

You better shut up and listen: Pink Reason, S/T 7”; Truthdealer, The Lieswatter Album; Brief Weeds, A Very 
Generous Portrait ; Pink Floyd, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn; Honor Role, 1 982. 


Reviewer Spotlight: Abbie Amadio (AJA) 

| Neutral Milk Hotel, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea has 
received plenty of critical praise and fan worship since its release on Merge Records in 
1998. And, rightly so. When I first heard it, there was no question as to the weight of 
its songs, the significance of its cover art, and the sincere creativity of Jeff Mangum’s 
lyrics. The record is genuinely human, even though its lyrics can conjure images we’d prefer are alien to us. 
Magnum’s lyrics are poetry set to music. His imagery is sweet, sometimes twisted, and feels like a dream that 
could be mistaken for memory. There is an emotional power behind his words that is strengthened by the 
melancholic groan of his vocals, which retreat and soar with each proper note. His delivery feels the lyrics; 
music and words are codependent and unified in telling the same story. Without any sense of melodrama, 
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is moving. It is a story, a mixture of dreams, memories, and disjointed expe¬ 
riences made even more powerful in the album’s precise instrumentation and perfectly strung-together 
melodies. The record is a representation of a twisted past, not of history, but of people trying to put together 
bits and pieces of settings and acquaintances, which are recognizable but still strange. 

Letter Of The Day “B”: Beekeeper, Ostrich; Black Lips, Let it Bloom; Built to Spill, Keep it Like a Secret; Bellini, 
Small Stones; David Bowie, Best of Bowie. 


Reviewer Spotlight: Bill Angelbeck (BA) 

Manu Chao, Clandestino. I guess I’m a latecomer to Manu Chao. I was at this party of 
mostly Argentineans... anyway, the wine was flowing and this incredibly fluid Span¬ 
ish music was playing that had a minimalist avant-garde element along with Mexican 
mariachi guitar. I had to ask “Who is this?” Nearly everyone around me stopped and 
said “Manu Chao!” as if they were dumbfounded. I was certainly the one who was not-in-the-know that 
night. But, he’s not well-known among Americans while there’s much awareness abroad. Manu Chao is the 
ringleader of the Latin Alternative movement; in fact, he was doing it long before it attracted such a name. 
He has quite a distinctive style-mixing up rock, French cabaret, salsa, hip-hop, reggae, and even Algerian 
folk music into a style that is distinctly his own. In his youth in Basque, Spain, and the suburbs of Paris, he 
was highly influenced by the Clash and other early punk groups. He formed Mano Negra, named after a 
Spanish anarchist organization, and his lyrics and sound samples often indicate his leftist politics. Clandes¬ 
tino was his first solo album and the minimalist sound is strong as opposed to the fuller sound of his later 






Across Five Aprils - Collapse, CD 

Remembering the Caldwell album I reviewed a few 
issues back from Indianola Records sends a shiver 
running up and down my spine. Thankfully, in review¬ 
ing this album, my fears of another bland-a-thon 
were completely unfounded. Like their labelmates, 
Across Five Aprils may follow a familiar blueprint, 
but Collapse-the Chattanooga band’s sophomore 
full length-is packed so full of great tunes that it’s 
hard to find fault with it. Take for example "I Will Stop 
the Rain,” which combines some memorable guitar 
hooks with a massive chorus that creeps up on you 
in the best way. In terms of songwriting, Across Five 
Aprils is miles ahead of the competition; the band 
create hook after hook with huge sing-a-long cho¬ 
ruses, tempered by rough and ready guitars and vo¬ 
cals that go from sung to screaming without a hint of 
the usual contrivance that plagues their contempo¬ 
raries. If you’re looking for a new fix of melodic met- 
alcore, Collapse is Shinola in a sea of shit. (CL) 

Indianola, indianolarecords.com 

Albert React - Sonos Eterno, CD 

There is plenty to dislike about the amateurish “reach¬ 
ing” of an unremarkable outfit playing emotional 
octaves at a snail’s pace, all the while accompanying 
a voice crafted for 15 seconds of radio fame. However, 
Albert React—in shedding their murky past as an unre¬ 
markable outfit playing a more “heavy,” “aggressive” 
brand of rock-find biting the likes of Sunny Day Real 
Estate a more successful pursuit. They hit all the right 
notes, go through the proper motions, and this disc 
is-if nothing else—listenable for anyone who’s been 
through the wringer of mid-’90s college rock. The prob¬ 
lem here is that college rock has moved on, and the only 
place for an album like this is the bargain bin. There is a 
pull that might interest some readers, though, and that 
is this: the disc is engineered and produced by Kevin 
Ratterman, drummer of the band Elliott, who manages 
to do the unthinkable and polish a turd. (JJC) 

Cl, 12Z4 Millersville Pike, Lancaster, PA 17603, cirecords.com 

Anyway - Dead End, CD 

Finally, a title that doesn’t fit for all the right reasons. 
The second full length from this Czech quartet will 
open far more doors for the group than it will close. 
From blasts of high-octane punk to more angular, 
Fugazi- or Husker-infused refrains, this excellent 
12-song outing displays a frighteningly developed 
grasp on how to craft calculated explosions. The 
record’s best played with speakers trembling, es¬ 
pecially for floor-shaking tracks like “Lost,” “Sick,” 
or “I Feel Bad.” Anyway also harbors a great sense 
of pacing and keeps the disc from becoming redun¬ 
dant by knowing just when to cool things down (the 
moody lull of “Bar Song” or “Dirty Shoes”) or toss in 
a blood-curling barnburner. Much of the disc’s second 
half, beginning with the blistering one-two punch of 
“The Future” and “Cunny,” feels like a call to riot, all 
furious guitars and barked vocals. Consider it an in¬ 
vitation. (JV) 

Silver Rocket Records, c/o Martin Hula, PO Box 378, 111 21 Praha 
1, silver-rocket.org 

More Noise Less Music, Dietmar Stork, Oranienstr. 174,10999 
Berlin, Germany, morenoiselessmusic.de 

Ascent of Everest, the - How Lonely Sits the City, CD 

The Ascent of Everest aim to create swoons of 


sound and affect moody ambience. This Nashville 
seven-piece, comprised of guitar, bass, cello, violin, 
piano, and percussion, recalls a harder version of the 
Rachel’s or a more restrained Godspeed You! Black 
Emperor. However, the incorporation of vocals sets it 
apart from those post-rock instrumental acts. Their 
titles are mostly long, attempting to set the scene 
in themselves: “As the City Burned, We Trembled 
For We Saw the Makings of Its Undoing in Our Own 
Hearts” or “Gathered Hearts Rise and Sing at the First 
Breath of Dawn.” The latter title is actually the name 
of the third movement of the last track, “If I Could 
Mountains.” On “Molotov," the piano and strings are 
effectively interlaced while the. drums jolt from er¬ 
ratic patterns to caffeinated climaxes. They really 
follow the Godspeed playbook on “A Threnody (For 
the Victims of November 2nd),” playing a lengthy 
recording of someone’s political diatribe, adding a 
soundtrack in the background and their own vocal 
chorus towards the end. The music is quite affecting 
at times on this limited edition release, if not really 
breaking much new ground in the post-rock field. 
And, if you pick up the vinyl (in hand-crafted pack¬ 
aging), you get a CD version with it. (BA) 

Angel or the Airbag, 323 N Spring St #2, Murfreesboro, TN 37130, 
angelortheairbag.com 

Bristle -1984450 

Bristle is back with a new release after a long hiatus 
from their Kings of Hardcore throne in the Northwest. 
Conrad Uno, the magnificent knob spinner at Egg 
studios, took his time in capturing the Bristle sound 
on 1984450, their best album to date. When hardcore 
acts return from the grave to do the reunion thing, 
it’s often to cash in on popularity after the breakup. 
Bristle’s motives are simple: after a few years playing 
with other outfits or taking personal time off from 
music, it just felt right to play again. Though hardcore 
in its fast form is a dying and overdone genre, this 
release feels fresh. Experience, tightness, and the 
ability to write quality songs is a formula that will 
work in any decade. And yet the question remains: 
should you go out and buy this? On my first listen, 
when the disc reached the fourth track and hit the 
bridge in “How Soon We Forget,” I had that feeling 
of being 14-years-old at a hardcore show (almost 
20 years ago) and actually got a tingling feeling. The 
guitar hooks are relentless and not overdone. If you 
aren’t sold yet, then a cover of the Big Boys’ “We’re 
Not in it to Lose” should seal the deal. (EA) 

Rodent Popside, PO Box 1143, Allston, MA 02134, rodentpopsicle.com 

Call It Arson-S/T, CD 

It’s become something of a tradition these days that 
when my Punk Planet review material arrives, at 
least one album in the bunch will sound like Bright 
Eyes. And I must be honest; I wouldn’t originally 
place my bets on Call It Arson. Nevertheless, this 
emotional quartet lay their mid-tempo drama rock 
on thick with titles such as “Here Comes the Flood” 
and “Butterflies Rape the Sound,” the latter of which 
might win the award for the most oddly misappro¬ 
priated song title of 2006. Somewhere, My Chemical 
Romance and Panic at the Disco are already scram¬ 
bling to send in submissions for next year, guys, so 
don’t rest on your laurels. (MS) 

Kill Normal Records, PO Box 17 Durham, CT 06422, killnormal.com 


122 PUNK PLANET 













Christ - Will We Always Be Blind Idiots?, CD 

Get past the heavy-handed socialist manifesto in the 
insert, and confrontational punk anthems await you. 
Will We Always Be Blind Idiots ? is catchy and driven, if 
slightly ramshackle, out-and-out punk fueled by the 
judgmental verbiage of an oik who considers everyone 
else fascists or tools. His snide-faced moaning clarifies 
the band’s agenda: to disparage artists who accept any 
money for their music; to pick on “alternative rock” 
(which is “a lot of crock”), the right and left wings 
(“opposite sides of the same capitalist venture”), edu¬ 
cation (“is it school or is it boot camp?”), and the list 
continues. Some may say it’s the kick up the arse the 
corporate punks and the rest of us could use, but others 
will find the self-righteousness hard to stomach and 
the frankness somewhat frightening. (KG) 

Self-released, 4147 N. Greenview, Chicago, IL 60613, christ- 
theband.com 

Coma Recovery, the - Drown That Holy End in 
Wine, CD 

When I first listened to this CD, what I liked about the 
Coma Recovery was similar to what I first thought 
about Since by Man. The music that now is referred 
to as “post-hardcore” really does feel like a natural 
progression and expansion of that powerful style of 
music, but in many ways, it feels a lot more satisfying 
because it appeals to more than one sense at a time. 
The Coma Recovery have all the thick power of what 
you’d expect from hardcore, but their songs are a bit 
of a roller coaster ride, taking you though a variety of 
feelings before each song climaxes. They’ll start off 
strong with a good riff or hook that is usually pretty 
aggressive, and just when you get used to it, they 
suddenly stop or slow down and get a bit melodic 
and experimental. And, just as you lapse into a more 
experimental mood, they slowly build up to another 
big finish. These songs are simultaneously giving me 
a fix of power and melody without once falling into 
the trappings of that “emo” nonsense that is all the 
rage with the kids these days. I’m going to be keep¬ 
ing a watchful eye on the Coma Recovery, because I 
anticipate they’ll be something pretty special. Kudos 
for the interesting presentation: the disc is packaged 
in a DVD-style digipak instead of a CD-sized one. 
(MXV) 

Failed Experiment, failedexperimentrecords.com 

Cult Maze-The Ice Arena, CD 

Cult Maze is a group of seemingly goofy college kids 
with vanilla tastes who manage to make it work 
within the context of their own sound. Right off the 
bat, the track “Another A to Z” opens with a keyboard 
riff ripped straight from Phil Collins (or, at best, Phil 
Collins-era Genesis) but later launches into the kind 
of charmingly plodding nerd rock that Cult Maze pull 
off so well. The vocals and lyrics are sometimes grat¬ 
ing, but let’s just assume that comes with the terri¬ 
tory. The recording quality is excellent for a first re¬ 
cord on what I can only imagine is a limited budget. 
If you are in the Portland, Maine vicinity and need to 
record, you might want to look up Marc Bartholomew 
and Scott Elson, who are credited with the recording 
and mastering. Some of the standout tracks on The 
Ice Arena, such as “Oh My” and “The Mystik,” exhibit 
a certain economy: so much is going on between the 
guitars, bass, keys, and drums, yet so little sonic 


space is wasted in the phrasing, and the three and a 
half minute songs remain focused. I hesitate to call 
this kind of a band “mature,” but musically, they are 
definitely a few steps ahead of the game. (JJC) 

Self-released, myspace.com/cultmaze 

Death Before Disco - Barricades, CD 

After starting out so strong on their new album, 
Barricades, Death Before Disco seem bound to run 
into obstacles. Indeed, the sad fact is that after the 
brilliant one-two combination of opening tracks 
“Etireno” and “Barricades of Rumble,” they fall back 
into a rut of ho-hum pop punk. So, what’s so great 
about the first two tracks on the album? Like a young 
Fall Out Boy taken to their natural stadium-rock con¬ 
clusion with the quirky mannerisms of vintage XTC, 
Death Before Disco offer a tantalizing glimpse of a 
new pathway for a tired-out genre to take. Unfortu¬ 
nately, they decide to turn back to Main Street before 
they get lost, which is a pity because more bands 
need to take the risk of occasionally getting lost. (CL) 

Lifeforce, llfeforcerecords.com 

Drunken Boat - S/T, CD 

There are many reasons to love Drunken Boat, in¬ 
cluding 1) Arthur Rimbaud as a namesake. 2) The way 
that Sarnia sounds just like the Muffs’ Kim Shattuck. 
3) “Golden Boys,” one of those rough and honest, old 
and true songs about friends in jail, needles in park¬ 
ing lots, and the bus to Chicago. Unfortunately, these 
are also reasons to read Rimbaud, listen to the Muffs, 
and find your own ride to Chicago. Drunken Boat is 
earnest, but largely recycled and sometimes dull. 
Still, I’m sure the band’s live show is twicely awe¬ 
some, and I’ll be waiting for the second album. (MC) 

1234 Go, 1207 N.E. Alberta St. #138, Portland, OR 97211,1234gore- 
cords.com 

Falcon, the - Unicornography, CD 

While Alkaline Trio guitarist and vocalist Matt Skiba 
is off making some dark, tortured-sounding album 
(Heavens), bassist Dan Andriano has been off mak¬ 
ing fun music with Chicago (and Lawrence Arms) pals 
Brendan Kelly and Neil Hennessy. It’s not all gloom 
and doom, (Matt! C’mon!) The Falcon’s second effort, 
it’s hard not to compare this to the Lawrence Arms, as 
two-thirds of the band usually reside in that camp, 
but while the music is from the same family tree 
(read: rough-around-the-edges pop punk), there’s 
a slightly more out-there vibe to the whole thing. The 
lyrics are really bizarre, for one, and the music itself is 
just more quirky than the Lawrence Arms and more 
lighthearted than the Alkaline Trio. It’s pretty obvious 
to this listener that the Falcon is not only a fun mu¬ 
sical outlet, but also a place for songs that wouldn’t 
quite fit into either chief project. For example, acous¬ 
tic guitar-based (and sure to be crowd-pleaser) 
“Blackout” just isn’t quite what you’d normally 
expect from any of these guys. At only 28 minutes 
long, Unicornography is incredibly easy on the ears 
and different enough from the members’ full-time 
projects to feel less like a side project and more like 
an actual band. (DH) 

Red Scare, redscare.net 

Fiel Garvie - Caught Laughing, CD 

Driven by singer Anne Reskie’s gorgeous melodious 
whispers, Fiel Garvie’s sleepy haze of melancholic 


MUSIC 

honcho/hipster radar. 3) They’re openly queer, which is brave and important, but also risky, as far 
as mass marketing is concerned. 4) They’re a male/female duo named after a bird, which means 
that every other critic compares them to Quasi, the Like, or Mates of State (Swallows sound a little 
like Quasi, but not much), and then cracks a joke about “no more bands named after wolves! Birds 
are the new black! Ever heard Swan Island?” 

Basically, the Swallows’ Emily Brownlowe (emBROWNLOWe) and Jonathan Miller have 
the shit end of a short straw. This fact probably isn’t surprising to you, dear Punk Pldnetee r, 
but that doesn’t make it any less lame. Actually, it’s super lame, because these kids have tal¬ 
ent and hustle. They should pack basements, deserve jammed venues (all-ages, of course), 
and-in a few years-will definitely merit crammed clubs, cross-country. 

Brownlowe and Miller are barely 20, but they’ve been playing together for almost three 
years. Before their avian incarnation, they called themselves Dirty Shirley, Led Kitten, Dot 
Dot Dot, and Yarokei, and they opened for the likes of Anna Oxygen, Rebecca Gates, and 
Emily Herring. The Swallows are young, but they’ve a fair amount of experience under their 
(star-studded, black plastic) belts. Here, it shows and shines. There are some obvious influ¬ 
ences-! hear Riot-Girl rhetoric and vocal curls a la Mecca Normal’s Jean Smith, plus obvious 
nods to Mama Cass and Lyn Hejinian-but there’s also a lot that’s genuine Swallows. 

For one, there’s Brownlowe’s voice, which is always brightly clear, coming sometimes 
from the head and others from the gut. (Occasionally, she bleats like a mini-Corin Tucker.) 
There is the mix of guitar and keys (Brownlowe) with drums and melodica (Miller), a combi¬ 
nation that none of the duos mentioned above use as consistently or innovatively. (See also 
“Surf Song OR,” which features Dougher on organ and Brownlowe’s voice, zooming from 
headphone to headphone.) There’s a queer love song (cheekily titled “I’d Like to be Your 
Man”), and even cuckoo noises, sweetly hooted at the beginning and end of “All of the Wind 
in the World Blows to Me,” a song that easily fills the darker corners of your head. 

There are also empty metaphors. “Empty” doesn’t mean “bad,” it means “empty.” There’s 
a lot of taking off, of wind whistling, of standing on the edge. You could easily link these emo¬ 
tions to the four issues I mention above, or you could try being in your early 20s, too: There is 
a lot of emptiness to this period, but there’s hope, too. Similarly Me With Trees Towering isn’t 
a crowning achievement-there’s plenty of room to grow-but it’s a fine beginning, and I’m 
definitely looking forward to whatever these two will do next. — Mairead Case 

Cherchez La Femme Projects, cherchezlafemmeprojects.com 


Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso UFO - Have You Seen the 
Other Side of the Sky?, CD 

History is dead: long live history. So say Japan’s Acid Mothers Temple on this, 
the tenth anniversary of the Melting Paraiso UFO’s collective, and after 10 years, 
anyone familiar with the group should know what to expect. Have You Seen 
kicks off with the same kind of whirling improvised freakout that generally 
begins a Melting Paraiso UFO record, then settles into "Buy the Moon of Jupi¬ 
ter,” a fine example of cosmic acoustic balladry this loose-knit group has made a career out of. Things begin 
to change on the third track, “Asimo’s Naked Breakfast: Rice and Shine,” where the group gets in touch with 
the spirit of Gong (the two groups are tour-mates this fall through Japan and at a festival in Amsterdam) for 
a psych oddity supplemented most of the way through by a woman’s moaning orgasm, ostensibly that of 
vocalist Nao, whose credits include “erotic voice, astral easy virtue.” The highlights of these six tracks are the 
fourth, “I Wanna Be Your Bicycle Saddle,” a sweaty, double-time romp replete with damaged guitars and 
astral mind daggers; “Interplanetary Love” follows that, the token mixtape material, a Ghost-like acoustic 
dirge heavy on melodrama that sounds similar to past AMT cuts “Le Lapin” and the mellower material of “New 
Geocentric World.” The real gem of this album is the long-awaited final cut, a 30-minute drone piece with a 
title as long as it takes to play (“The Tales of Solar Sail - Dark Stars in the Dazzling Sky”), one that’s been a live 
staple for the band over the past few years and I’ve tried, fruitlessly, until now, to track down on record. After 
five minutes of a flute intro, the guitar cuts in, and I haven’t had my ass kicked by this band like this since the 
first time I put on the C-side of Pataphisical Freak Out MUU I realize that sounds so insider-like and lame, but 
it’s true, and the only remedy I can recommend to anyone reading this, wondering why I’ve gone on at such 
length and made such little sense, is to go out and listen to this fucking track. It’s a monster, it's huge, and it’s 
the only song I can honestly say sounds like its title. (JJC) 

Ace Fu, acefu.com 



PUNK PLANE! 123 






REVIEWER SPOTLIGHTS 


albums, also with a larger band. Most songs are in Spanish, but lyrics can be French or English, and he’s even 
sung in Arabic, Portuguese within the same song. He’s almost impossible not to like, with spot-on riffs and 
contagious melodies. 

Take Five: Akron/Family, Meek Warrior, The Thermals, The Body, The Blood, The Machine; Jerk With a Bomb, 
Pyrokinesis; the Brian Jonestown Massacre, We Are the Radio; the Books, Music For a French Elevator. 

Reviewer Spotlight: Mike Barron (MB) 

Hero of a Hundred Fights, The Remote, The Cold EP. Perhaps one of the most under- 
appreciated bands ever, Hero of a Hundred Fights tore it up until 2001 with their final 
(and by far best) release The Remote, The Cold EP on Divot Records. Dueling vocals 
and complex, hardcore guitar lines led this quartet down paths of math rock, screamo, 
hardcore, and even metal. The singer, William Zientara, joined Hero before the release of this record, and his 
arrival changed this band for the better. His signature, high-pitched chant-singing style can be heard on a 
lot of the math-rock stuff coming from Milwaukee between 1995 and 2005. There’s something about this 
forceful scream-singing that is so totally unique-and that makes him a favorite singer of mine. Members 
of this band (including Zientara) have been in some of my other favorite Milwaukee bands, including Call Me 
Lightning, Managra, Fuiguirnet, Murder in the Red Barn, Tintoretto, etc. Recorded by Steve Albini at Electrical 
Audio, this EP proves to be their most advanced and intricate record. Of course, they had to call it quits soon 
after, and I never got a chance to see them live. The short-lived Fuiguirnet, my favorite of the Milwaukee 
scene, featured Zientara on vocals, but it came and disbanded over a year ago, only releasing a split 7” with 
Wolf and Cub. And now... there is nothing. Hero of a Hundred Fights, and all you other disbanded Milwaukee 
bands: you will be greatly missed. 

I like this now: Nightmares on Wax, In a Space Outta Sound; The Shipping News, Flies the Field; V/A, A Four 
Way Stop; Xiu Xiu, The Air Force (reviewed this issue); Lifter Puller, Half Dead and Dynamite. 

Reviewer Spotlight: Joanna Buchmeyer (JB) 

Bush, Kate, The Dreaming. In order to pay homage to Kate Bush as a major female musical artist and contrib¬ 
utor, The Dreaming is the keystone to doing so. Her fourth album, it received the least amount of recognition 
compared to her other eight releases, placed the lowest on music charts, and had the smallest album sales 
when it was released in 1982, but highly deserves praise and recognition. The Dreaming has an interest¬ 
ingly distinct sound unique to her discography, yet still contains deep literary-influenced lyrics, her startling 
four-octave range voice, and dark, artsy-rock melodies-Kate Bush consistencies. What makes The Dreaming 
different from her other releases is the way her songs, specifically “Pull out the Pin,” sound like dark tribal 
chants imitating African, Native American, and Aboriginal beats. Although this album only reached 48 on the 
UK pop charts in 1982, this album displays Bush’s diversity and versatility as a lyricist and songwriter in a way 
her previous (and following) albums do not. Bush’s bizarre intensity expressed in The Dreaming can be seen 
in the work of artists she’s influenced, from the likes of Bjork, Pat Benetar, Stevie Nicks, and Tori Amos. Up 
until I heard this album, the only bush I trusted was my own. Now, I trust two. 

A revolution is about to start: Biff Bang Pow!, Love is Forever, Animal Collective, Feels; Tears for Fears, Songs 
From the Big Chair, New Order, 1981-1985 ; Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense 

Reviewer Spotlight: Mairead Case (MC) 

Iggy Pop, Lust for Life. In the late 70s, Iggy Pop (AKA the Rock Lobster; AKA James 
Newell Osterberg, Jr., a kid from Muskegon, Ml) moved to Berlin with David Bowie. 
There, Pop re-grew his eyebrows, did less heroin than before, and (somehow) wrote 
two albums, The Idiot and Lust for Life. The latter is full of non-sequitur punk and 
awkwardly perfect segues, as stamped by the creepiest high-school graduation headshot ever. I love it, 
which is strange because it’s also full of misogyny and racism. Sure, I’ve spent nights arguing whether or 
not “Turn Blue” is a bold exorcism or a creepy song by a creepy fuck. But I also connect “The Passenger’s” 
bright drum rolls with roughly every move or change I’ve made since age 20, and I totally believe the title 
track’s take on love (it really is a lot like “hypnotizing chickens”). The only solution? Find the vinyl, listen to 
the whole, and make up your own mind. 

Just like a tire swing / Loving you is tiring: TITS, Regina Spektor, Begin to Hope; Erase Errata, Night Life; 
Crooks and Nannies; High Street Orchestra, When Eggs Go Rotten. 

Reviewer Spotlight: Vincent Chung (VC) 

Garden Variety, Knocking the Skill Level. When this came out in the late ‘90s, I remember the punk 
scene had a hard time categorizing it-and it was a time where subgenre mattered a great deal. For 
those who looked past the fact that they transcended labels and got it, got it. And what a brilliant album 
it was. Knocking the Skill Level was their second outing, following an album that had sealed them as a 
burgeoning East Coast (New Jersey, if you want to be specific) pop-punk outfit. Their second record— 
and their last-was noisy and discordant, but had this subtle melody that made it accessible. Somehow, 
this garnered plenty of very unfair Jawbreaker comparisons. It was an album that didn’t draw upon its 
first hearing, as the songs meandered through plenty of dynamics, textured tempo changes, and other 




shoe-gaze pop has a stunning way of seeping under 
the skin. Blanketed in analog warmth, eerily sub¬ 
merged backdrops, and softly layered swells, Caught 
Laughing-mixed by Geoff Allen (Camera Obscura, 
Belle & Sebastian, Mogwai)—bears lucidly emotive 
atmospherics. The Norwich quintet, furthered by the 
incorporation of extra musicians in the studio envi¬ 
ronment, has been releasing records since the early 
‘90s, but prior to their recent partnering with vari¬ 
ous international labels, the band’s exposure outside 
of England has been somewhat limited. Thankfully, 
this release should be accessible, after some minor 
searching, to the majority of Punk Planet’s wide¬ 
spread readers. Beautiful and consistent, Caught 
Laughing, is a remarkable composition that’s highly 
advised for those listeners with a predisposition for 
the mellow and mood-heavy. (BM) 

Words on Music, 715 University Ave SE #201, Minneapolis, MN 
55414, words-on-music.com 

Form of Rocket - Men, CD 

It’s rare that I don’t enjoy a post-hardcore record 
with math-rock tendencies (or vice versa), and Form 
of Rocket is no exception. The guitars crank out com¬ 
plex and angular melodies comparable to any num¬ 
ber of beloved Chicago math rock-ish bands, while 
the bass has an amazing drive and groove that, at 
times, reminds me a little of Shotmaker (although I 
should note Form of Rocket’s songs aren’t as struc¬ 
tured around the bass as that of Shotmaker). The 
vocals are shouted and Form of Rocket’s sound falls 
into the more angry camp of mathy bands. Overall, 
there’s lots of interesting guitar work, but the album 
lacks a bit of the “wow factor” required to completely 
bowl me over. (KM) 

Sick Room Records, PO Box 47830, Chicago, IL 60647, sickroom- 
records.com 

Ganglion-Of the Deep, CD 

“Birthday Party, Khanate, the Hidden Chord, James 
Chance and the Contortions, HP Lovecraft, cyclopian 
architecture, Giant Squid.” So reads the list of influ¬ 
ences on the MySpace page of Minneapolis-based 
band Ganglion. That’s one helluva list. Prying a little 
deeper into their Avernus of the Internet, I discover 
a set of cryptic images, seemingly suggesting that 
the band merely has one too many Alien Sex Fiend 
records in their possession. But placing the CD into 
my player, I discover a strange amalgam of sinewy, 
stripped-down proto-goth, a deformed hybrid of 
the morbid rattle of the Pop Group and Virgin Prunes 
with a twist of post-metalcore crunch for the kids. A 
little out of character, the singer screams invocations 
in a voice so hoarse that at times he’s a dead ringer 
for Darkthrone’s Fenriz. Of the Deep is such a strange 
black metal/goth hybrid that it actually works, mak¬ 
ing for some of the freshest new music I’ve heard in 
awhile. You’d have to go a long way (perhaps all the 
way to Innsmouth?), to find another such ungodly 
blend... bwoo hah hah! (CL) 

Self-released, distributed by Profane Existence, profaneexis- 
tence.com 

Glue - Catch as Catch Can, CD 

Glue’s second full length after 2003’s Seconds Away, 
Catch as Catch Can is better than its predecessor. Lyri¬ 
cally, Adem is as on fire as he ever, with his rapid-fire 
delivery and clever verses, but it’s producer Maker 


that’s really stepped up his game-the beats sound¬ 
ing more confident and full of life. It’s this confidence 
that really sets Glue apart from many of their hip- 
hop peers. Catch as Catch Can isn’t flawless (its main 
problem being that it runs a little long), but unlike a 
number of hip-hop releases, it succeeds in the fact 
that it’s easy to listen to. The songs are diverse, the 
production funky and soulful, and the lyrics thought 
out, provided your brain can process the lyrics at 
the same speed Adem tends to spit them out. I can’t 
forget DJ DQ, who controls the turntables and inte¬ 
grates them into the mix without being overbearing 
or seeking attention via scratching. While the songs 
about inner reflection and feelings aren’t really my 
cup of tea, they’re at least taken upon with an hon¬ 
est approach, not sounding synthetic in the least. 
With Glue’s strong Midwest connections (the group 
has ties to Aurora, IL, Ohio, and New Hampshire), 
the album has a real Chicago feel, bringing to mind 
Typical Cats (Maker did a whole record with Typical 
Cats member Qwel) or the All Natural crew. For those 
looking for great, modern hip-hop releases that 
aren’t on the radio or a huge label, Glue is an effort¬ 
less choice. (DH) 

Fat Beats, 110 Bridge St, 3rd Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201, fat- 
beats.com 

Graves at Sea - Documents of Grief, CDEP 

Insanely sludgy death doom out of Arizona. My word! 
These guys sound dirty, pissed, and ripped to the tits 
on opiates. The riffs are down tuned to hell, and the 
singer death pukes like John Tardy from Obituary. 
I’m not 100 percent sure, but I think this four-song 
dirge-out is a proper reissue of their demo. The liner 
notes indicate it was recorded back in 2003, and it 
sure has that raw, untamed sound that many demos 
have. That’s not to say Documents of Grief sounds like 
it was done on the cheap, or that the band isn’t tight. 
Quite to the contrary, it sounds inspired, like freshly 
squeezed ideas that coalesced without too much 
stress or strain. That’s sort of the beauty of this doom 
metal stuff. When it’s done right-the way Graves At 
Sea does it-the music just oozes out of the speakers 
all onto the floor, all the way across the room, up your 
pants, over your gut, up into your nostrils and creepy 
crawls all around your brain for (in the case of this al¬ 
bum) around 30 minutes. Didn’t Greg Ginn say some¬ 
thing about a slow rolling tank doing more damage 
than a speeding bullet? Well, here’s proof. (AJ) 

ZO Buck Spin, PMB 373,5433-K Clayton Road, Clayton, CA 94517, 
ZObuckspin.com 

Great Crusades, the - Four Thirty, CD 

Something tells me my age is the reason I’d never 
heard of the Great Crusades before. The ballsy, heavy 
rock made by this Chicago foursome is intrinsically 
tied to smoke-choked bars, locales I’ve not been 
welcome to until the last two years. But hearing 
Four Thirty, the band’s fifth album, makes me glad 
I’m legal. Led by Brian Krumm’s deep and wobbly 
vocals (who can kindly be compared to Nick Cave or 
Tom Waits without the mush mouth), the Great Cru¬ 
sades plow through the 11 tunes on Four Thirty like 
boozehounds through a case of whiskey. Their beefy 
riffs are straightforward enough for fist-pumping, 
yet limber enough to boogie to. Lead guitarist Brian 
Leach doesn’t aim for virtuosity, but rather crackling 


124 PUNK F L A fti E T 






MUSIC 


leads that compel audience members to air guitar 
with scrunched up faces. Combined with Krumm’s 
easy-riding rhythm guitar and the deft bass and 
drum work, their songs pack a punch. One of the 
group’s greatest assets is Krumm’s lyrical skills. In¬ 
stead of weepy tributes to ex-girlfriends or a host 
of angsty platitudes, Krumm croaks out unusual and 
detailed stories. The finished product is a distant, less 
dissonant cousin of thrashing weirdos Rye Coalition, 
or perhaps a nephew of Nick Cave and his Bad Seeds. 
Regardless, the Great Crusades have made an enjoy¬ 
able rock ‘n’ roll record with Four Thirty, and they 
show no signs of mellowing out. Fellas, the next 
round of brews is on me. (SRM) 

Innocent Words, PO Box 674, Danville, IL 61834, innocentwords.com 

Happy Hate Me Nots - The Good That’s Been 
Done, CD 

The Good That’s Been Done is a two-disc collection of 
pretty much everything this Sydney, Australia band 
ever did in their near 10-year existence. The Happy 
Hate Me Nots came on the scene at a time when cer¬ 
tain bands in the punk rock scene were heading in 
a more “college rock” direction (while the other half 
went metal) and started writing more power-pop 
songs in an effort to gain more acceptance. This band 
fits that mold perfectly; except, they were always a 
power-pop band, rather than morphing into one lat¬ 
er in life. The songs are pretty catchy and enjoyable 
and will give you flashbacks to that era of indepen¬ 
dent music if you’re old enough to remember it. Two 
discs is a lot to take in in one sitting, but there is cer¬ 
tainly a handful of enjoyable tunes on here. The liner 
notes tell the tale of the band from beginning to end, 
and will make you dizzy in the amount of times you 
have to flip the book sideways to continue the story, 
but it’s an interesting one nonetheless. (MXV) 

Feel Presents, feelpresents.com 

Heads, the - Under the Stress of a Headlong 
Dive, CD 

Under the Stress of a Headlong Drive is a lumbering 
giant of a record. Pay the price of admission and you’ll 
get treated to post-grunge stomping, psych-rock 
epics and punk anthems descended right from the 
MC5. You get noisy interludes, sludgy blues numbers, 
and loads of screeching feedback. There’s even what 
appears to be a fuzzy, boot-stomping tribute to Jello 
Biafra (I’ll give you three chances to guess which San 
Francisco label released this little gem). But despite 
the diversity parading through this record’s nearly 75 
minutes, listeners may be surprised to hear how well 
the whole affair hangs together. Lesser bands could 
stumble between the bongo and Big Muff verses of 
“Pass, the Void” and, say, the glassy jazz asides of 
“EVP,” but the Heads seem to not only benefit from 
the chasms but also make them feel somehow con¬ 
nected. And the few who arrive at disc’s end uncon¬ 
verted need to look no further than “Creating in the 
Eternal Now is Always Heavy," whose scorching solos, 
Mountain-like chops and surges of noise are the ulti¬ 
mate acid-tinged head trip. (JV) 

Alternative Tentacles, PO Box 419092, San Francisco, CA 94141, 
alternativetentacles.com 

Hella - Acoustics, CDEP 

Seeing that Hold Your Horse Is and The Devil Isn’t 


Red are, in my opinion, two of the three finest Hella 
releases (with the Total Bugs Bunny on Wild Bass EP 
constituting the third), it should come as no surprise 
that a six-track EP of tunes predominantly from 
them, and reconstructed into acoustic versions, 
makes for a fantastic disc. Electricity-free renditions 
of “1-800-Ghost Dance,” “Cafeteria Bananas,” and 
“Biblical Violence” comprise three of the six songs 
and are alone worth the purchase. The new versions 
also create a sense of nostalgia for the two-mem¬ 
ber days of yore that resulted in vividly complex but 
markedly catchy songwriting. Now if only Hella: Un¬ 
plugged could become a reality... (SJM) 

5 Rue Christine, PO Box 1190, Olympia, WA, 98506,5rc.com 

HIM-Peoples,CD 

This record is kind of kooky and wild. It’s for peoples 
like undergraduates, professors, and perfectionists 
who enjoy experimenting with instruments and 
sounds. It’s music to meditate or eat sushi to. It’s all 
over the place, sounding like rainfalls, relaxation, 
and then the exact opposite. Quite soothing and 
unquestionably select in its expertise, Peoples was 
made by ex-members of June of 44, Codeine, Mice 
Parade and Sorts. HIM is perfect in its outbursts of 
horns, galvanized rhythm section, and woodwinds 
that would make for great chase scenes should Wes 
Anderson ever decide to make a private eye-styled 
picture. (SM) 

Bubble Core, bubblecore.com 

Homostupids - The Brutal Birthday EP, 7” 

I’ve been reading reviews of this 7” recently, and the 
Chrome comparison has been tossed around quite a 
bit. I can’t say I disagree. They’re not a rip-off, but I 
can see where critics might derive the comparison. 
The EP is comprised of six songs, all on one side. It 
only makes sense to me: the songs are all great, short 
blasts of some real oddball shit, and by putting them 
all on one side, it saves listeners the trouble of flip¬ 
ping it over. While all six songs blew me away, a few 
of them stuck out more than the others. The opening 
track, “Having a Houseguest,” ropes you in with its 
primitive drumbeat, repetitive but catchy riff, and 
vocals that sound like the tape was crumpled up. 
“Waiting for the House” is an instrumental in the 
middle of the record that sounds like Devo writing 
a funk song for a Nintendo game. “Brutal Birthday” 
closes it out with an off-beat rhythm, distorted bass, 
and eerie sounding keyboard. Check back with me at 
the end of the year; this one will probably be at the 
top of my list, right next to the Pink Reason 7”. (DA) 

Richie, PO Box 63770, Philadelphia, PA 19147 

Human Abstract, The - Nocturne, CD 

Giving a nod to Metallica’s “Fight Fire With Fire” at 
the start of your album isn’t a good idea if the rest 
of your album is this god-awful. Take a perpetually 
lisping teenage crooner, add a dash of inept neoclas¬ 
sical metal, plus a healthy dose of Hot Topic emo, 
and you’ll have yourself an over-seasoned broth of 
the most unpalatable variety. You’ll find not being 
a Ritalin-addicted seven year-old a positive dis¬ 
advantage if you’re hoping to get past the first few 
tracks on Nocturne. Suffice it to say, I found it a little 
hard going at times. File under: “For fans of Avenged 
Sevenfold.” (CL) 

Hopeless, hopelessrecords.com 



De Kift - S/T, CD 

Staggeringly beautiful, brilliantly literate, and thrumming with original en¬ 
ergy, De Kift are a wonderful surprise. Since 1988, the Dutch ensemble has 
explored the depths of folk and punk music without relying on other groups 
as reference points. Its members span two generations of musicianship, the 
balance of which allows De Kift to mine elements of traditional European folk 
music and meld them with the adventurous tendencies of punk rock and the 
avant-garde scene. But this is no Beirut; the amalgamation is entirely fresh 
and wholly enjoyable. De Kift is actually a combination of the group’s last two releases, Vlaskoorts (1998) 
and Koper (2001), and is their first album to see American shores. The songs are precisely-crafted vehicles 
for texts the group finds particularly profound, including works by Lord Byron, Flannery O’Connor, John Holt, 
and a host of lesser known but equally worthy writers. Lead vocalist Ferry Heyne (who also plays trumpet 
and trombone) switches off between passionately reading and singing the words in Dutch, acting as the nar¬ 
rator for the stories unfolding listeners’ heads (thankfully, English translations are provided). The full-lunged 
tenor is joined by swells of the group’s choral-styled unison vocals. De Kift foregoes the verse/chorus style 
for a more free-flowing, text-ordained structure, which works well with the untraditional, traditional ar¬ 
rangements. “Oo” ebbs and flows over a hollow guitar loop like a ghost knocking about in a coat closet. “So 
Long” follows the stomp of intertwined piano and guitar, with the caution of a man unsure of his abilities to 
resist a woman’s gaze (as per the text). Tension also thrums through “The Village Tree,” a morbid menagerie 
of teeth-on-edge guitar strums, spooky horn charts and shift percussion. Watershed piano tinkles, brazenly 
beautiful horn harmonies, restrained bass lines, and the handsome Dutch tongue make for instantly recog¬ 
nizable—yet entirely foreign-tunes. De Kift craft honey sweet melodies you can hold onto and sing along 
with, even if the syllables tripping from your lips are meaningless. Their superb choices for libretto and their 
tuneful casings reveal a wonderfully untouched talent ready to be heard. Considering the excellence encap¬ 
sulated in this self-titled album, it won’t be long until that’s the case. (SRM) 

North East Indie, PO Box 10315, Portland, ME 04104-0315, northeastindle.com 


Fat Worm of Error - Pregant Babies Pregnant with Pregnant Babies, CD 

Fat Worm of Error is mixing dangerous compounds in some underground 
noise laboratory. They seem to take some inspiration from the opening 
section of Pink Floyd’s “Money” with crisp clanks and clangs of various ma¬ 
chines, although these people crank at higher speeds. They squeeze noise 
alchemically from other instruments, everyday objects, and found things 
it seems—they generate percussion from about anything and whip it into 
extreme speeds, odd pacings, and stop-starts. Mostly, though, they seem 
to use basses and guitars, horns, synths, and a panoply of percussion. The inconstant female vocals chant, 
shriek, and groan somewhat like Kim Gordon in her more arty side-projects. The closest comparison for this 
noise outfit is perhaps Deerhoof—in fact, two of the members have been in Deerhoof in the past (as well as 
Angst Hase and Pfeffer Nase)—but this is way more chaotic and eccentric. They do so much: On “La Mortdans 
La Ville Du Bois Vert,” motorcycle riffs criss-cross the speakers like Hell’s Angels encircling prey; later it de¬ 
scends into warped strings and horns that moan like sad witches melting in Oz; for “Petulant Bureaucrats 
Pummeled With Peanut Butter,” various things hum and buzz intensely like warped bees while it sounds as 
if a spaceship air battle is immediately overhead; and with “Lets Fool The Meat To Hassle The Room”—one of 
their rockers—everything bangs and metallic rattles serve as guitar shrieks for the 40-second piece. Some 
will surely find this “unlistenable” or call it “wankery,” especially with vocals that try to be off-putting, but 
there are certain moments of brilliance and even beauty. When you mix dangerous compounds like this, 
sometimes things explode, sometimes you concoct something near gold, or if you’re lucky, at least some¬ 
thing makes you hallucinate a bit. It’s deranged noise rock—reason enough for checking it out. (BA) 

Load, PO Box 35, Providence, Rl 02901, loadrecords.com 



Fix, the - At the Speed of Twisted Thought, CD 

Back in 1981, four guys from Lansing, Ml formed a little hardcore band, 
toured the country twice, put out two singles and then quickly vanished. 
They had no idea that their records would have any kind of lasting impact 
on anyone, let alone that people would pay huge money to acquire an origi¬ 
nal copy either one of their two 7-inches they released in their short time 
together (in fact, I still need a copy of the first one!). The Fix were one of the 
very first Midwest hardcore punk bands, and they also happened to be one 
of the best despite the fact that in the big scheme of things, very few people ever got to hear their recorded 
output except on some lame bootlegs put together by record nerds trying to give an artificial boost to the 
value of their record collections. After more than two decades, Touch & Go finally decided to reissue this 
legendary bands recorded output, along with extras! The music is as raw and as powerful as you’d expect 
from 1980s hardcore. This was the template that hundreds of bands followed in their wake, and it stands up 
as good now as it did back then. This disc compiles their two 7-inches, the track from the Process of Elimina¬ 
tion compilation, and a few unreleased demo and live tracks. Apparently the master tapes to this stuff were 



PUNK PLANET 125 







REVIEWER SPOTLIGHTS 


general traits that were too challenging for a casual listen. But the pop hooks were buried so deep 
that listeners were compelled to take another listen. And then another. The songs are far from catchy, 
but definitely infectious. Sections of this album (that breakdown that comes a quarter into “Chatroom 
Walkout?” Holy shit!) will get stuck in my head, but I’ll never be able to hum them, and there’s a certain 
beauty in that elusiveness. 

Five to Stay Alive: Blind Guardian, A Twist in the Myth ; Icepick, Violent Epiphany ; Current 93, Thunder Perfect 
Mind ; V/A, The Complete Motown Singles, Volume 1: 1959-1961 ; Three Mile Pilot, Another Desert, Another Sea. 

iiggotflrfH Reviewer Spotlight: Art Ettinger (AE) 

""WsB Squiggy, Songs About Hate, Anger and the American Way. New Jersey’s Squiggy 

# formed in 1995 and s P ent the second ha| f of the <90s Putting out a series °f 7-inches 

that de ^ ined ttie era s oi! / street P unk revival - This ® on Heacteche Records is their only 
full length to date, and it’s a must-have for anyone with even a slight interest in this 
oft-misunderstood subgenre. Many of the songs appeared in different forms on the band’s EPs, but the 
re-recordings are a rare breed in that they surpass the originals on all levels. The powerful working class 
anthems featured here include “The Hands of Time,” “Score One,” “Middle Class Rebellion,” and my per¬ 
sonal favorite, “Hang the Lawyers.” Musically, they’re definitely more influenced by US oi! than European 
oi!, although they’re even faster than most hardcore-influenced oi!. The songs contain tempo changes more 
commonly found in other types of punk. From the front cover image of a tattered flag on down through the 
pro-unity lyrics, they’re a refreshing change of pace in a scene full of negativity. Squiggy never broke up and 
periodically announces that they’ll be returning to songwriting. Let’s hope they make a comeback sooner 
rather than later, as a return of these oi! heroes is long overdue. 

These records are still keeping me happy as the year nears its end: Caustic Christ, Lycanthropy, Lower Class Brats, 
New Seditionaries; the Dwarves, FEFU DVD; The Casualties, Under Attack; V/A, Everybody Loves ANTiSEEN. 

Reviewer’s Spotlight: Kristen Grayewski (KG) 

Sugarcubes, the, Stick Around for Joy. In 1992, an eclectic, precocious bundle of joy was released to the 
world at large. Its voice an operatic yelp and its disposition appealingly silly, Stick Around for Joy from the 
Sugarcubes (the band best known as the one Bjork mothered before her solo career took off) is an album 
of dream-like mellifluous jangle, occasional absurdity, and a remarkable sense of honeyed melodies. 
This, their third and final album, is full of tracks so hodge-podge that they sound anti-hit-single even 
while the album as a whole summons the joy of a birthday party at a roller rink. What’s not to love? Well, 
there is the way member Einar Orn jars Bjork’s soaring vocals with spoken broken-English interjections; 
when his verbal input is kept in the background, though, it adds further whimsy. Mostly, this album is just 
a fat slice of funk-infused indie heaven with sprinkles. Take the uncomplicated dazzle of “Lucky Night,” 
when Bjork vocalizes with staggering gusto about how she gets really excited when she does two things 
at once: “To read a letter and to fall in love / to not sleep and be not unhappy.” There’s also the part in 
the as-good-as-songs-get “Walkabout,” when Bjork delightfully cries “I want to be there / right with 
you / that’s where I’m staying / where no one can find me.” There, she vocalizes the type of escapism 
mirrored in the glorious landscapes of the guitar lines and the confounding range of her voice. There, it’s 
always a happy birthday. 

2 parts current listens, 3 parts b-day wish-list: M. Ward, Post-War, V/A, The Kids at the Club, An Indiepop 
Compilation; Dexy’s Midnight Runners, Don’t Stand Me Down; Yo La Tengo, I Am Not Afraid of You, and I Will 
Beat Your Ass; The Wrens, The Meadowlands. 


Reviewer Spotlight: Eric Grubbs (EG) 

Therapy?, Infernal Love. Ireland’s Therapy? was like a secret handshake in my high 
school. The few fans that I knew would say their name with a deepening of the voice 
and a widening of the eyes. This trio had something special going on, but nobody 
could really explain what exactly it was. Upon hearing Hats Off to the Insane and 
Troublegum, I think I knew what was up. Up until that point, Therapy? had a string of singles, mini-albums, 
and records that were very melodic and punky but also sounded like Prong and Helmet records. Yet on ‘95s 
Infernal Love, the cold industrial sounds were replaced by smoother sounds coupled with a wider scope of 
songwriting. From barnburners like “Stories” and “Misery” to the Police-like “Bad Mother” to the stellar 
singles of “Jude the Obscene” and “Loose” to the peaceful “Moment of Clarity,” Infernal Love is probably 
the band’s finest album start to finish. Also special of note is their strings-and-vocals version of Husker Du’s 
“Diane.” Reworking the song like Nick Cave fronting the Kronos Quartet, the song goes to a much sinister 
place than the original ever did. The band released a handful of records after Infernal Love and is still going 
today. They’ve never reached above a secret handshake for many in the US, but for what they do, that’s 
quite all right. 

There was this big bang once: Cursive, Happy Hollow; TV on the Radio, Return to Cookie Mountain; Wilco, A 
Ghost is Born; Blackpool Lights, This Town’s Disaster, Converge, You Fail Me. 



I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness - According 
to Plan, CDEP 

Thirteen minutes, apparently, is all these guys need 
to envelop you. This bite-size, three-song offering 
packs as much of an emotional punch as the lauded 
Fear is On Our Side, the full-length platter the Aus¬ 
tin quintet released just a handful of months before 
this. Maybe it’s the sequencing or Paul Barker’s crisp 
production-all clean edges and ‘80s-pop-hued. 
The obscenely catchy outtakes certainly don’t hurt: 
a pair of atmospheric odes saturated with dreamy 
synth washes, reverb-laced vocals, and-oddly 
enough-soaring guitar refrains not far removed 
from the crescendos of Godspeed You! Black Emperor 
The whole record, despite its brief running time, just 
sings- as good an introduction to the band as it is an 
addendum to their growing success. (JV) 

Secretly Canadian, 1499 W. Second St., Bloomington, IN 47403, 
secretlycanadian.com 

Invincible Czars, The - Gods of Convenience, CD 

Conceptually speaking, the thought of free-jazz and 
chamber music intermingled with Eastern European 
traditional methods and straight up metal curdles 
any sense of appeal. Although it’s inconsistent, 
Austin’s Invincible Czars occasionally succeed in mas¬ 
tering their strange brew. Counterbalanced by faults, 
their shortcomings are embodied in a lack of re¬ 
straint. In their finer moments, the quintet of drums, 
guitars, bass, trumpet, and keys brings to mind the 
likes of early Mr. Bungle, World Inferno Friendship 
Society, and Sweep the Leg Johnny. Unfortunately, 
they attempt too much and their more experimen¬ 
tal efforts are riddled by an obvious lack of aptitude, 
giving the said sections a forced feel. Furthermore, 
their occasional delving into ska taboos, extended 
dirt weed jam sessions, and self-serving-solo-in- 
dulgence stand out as unimpressive and awkward 
within the context of the album’s overall movement. 
Perfecting the circus splicing of such widespread in¬ 
fluences is a task for the few and proud. While there’s 
a rickety foundation in place, the Invincible Czars are 
thoroughly exceeded by their oddball peers. (BM) 
Above Suspicion, invincibleaars.com 

lnvisible-5 - S/T, 2xCD 

When driving, I’ve often thought of how cool it 
would be to have some kind of Internet hookup 
connected to a global-positioning device that 
would line up some audio about the surrounding 
landscape-its geology, local history, even mu¬ 
sic scene samples. If we had something like that, 
I’d link up to lnvisible-5’s self-titled album when 
driving 1-5 between LA and San Francisco, but since 
it’s a CD you can hear it now. This is a double disc 
with a little booklet detailing spots along the route 
that are significant for political and environmental 
reasons. It notes power plants and their histories of 
toxic leaks and the accompanying effects on the lo¬ 
cal population; detailing why some stretches have 
poor visibility due to smog; areas where Native 
Americans were forcibly expelled from their tradi¬ 
tional lands; lands where the crops are poisonous 
with heavy pesticide use, and so on. It’s not just 
talk either-it’s modeled after a museum audio 
tour and really sounds more like a radio documen¬ 
tary. Rather than someone just reading, there are 


clips from television and radio reports, audio from 
protests, oral histories, and archival samples. Plus, 
these are often backed by soundtracks whose mu¬ 
sic also serves as interludes, allowing time to con¬ 
sider these thoughts as you take in the landscape 
at about 70 MPH. If you are driving that stretch 
or plan to drive it in the future, pick this up. No 
doubt any band touring the west coast might find 
this a welcome diversion from music and a way to 
draw attention to the landscape they’re passing 
through. It’s a commendable project to bring the 
politics of a landscape in a way that’s novel and 
immediate, adding an experiential element that 
really helps drive home these stories. Let’s hope 
that all the highways get their due in a production 
like this. (BA) 

invisible5.org 

Ivy League, the - London Bridges, CDEP 

As the dulcet voices of New York City transplants the 
Ivy League bounce into the ears, the desire grows to 
check your CD player to see if a disc was mislaid. The 
duo makes a precarious mix of buoyant indie pop and 
stripped down acoustic ballads which bank on their 
sweet and highly familiar vocals. “London Bridges” 
lacks the crammed detail of Of Montreal but know¬ 
ingly uses similar song structure. The rest of London 
Bridges relishes in recreating the style of hushed 
acoustic ballads Kings of Convenience borrowed 
from Simon and Garfunkel. Alex Suarez and Ryland 
Blackinton take it a step further and sing plaintive 
harmonies nearly identical to those created by their 
Norwegian idols. Oftentimes it’s the vocals playing 
the leading role in order to thicken up rudimentary 
guitar lines, which is better than ignoring their short¬ 
comings. Though the Ivy League seems a bit like an 
indie cover band at the present (they close the EP 
with an Arcade Fire song), they could prove prom¬ 
ising provided they take some chances and expand 
their palate. (SRM) 

Twentyseven, 343 South West 184 Way, Pembroke Pines, FL 
33029, twentysevenrecords.com 

Junior Boys - So This is Goodbye, CD 

People call this “electro-pop.” While it’s clear 
that the pulse (on repeat, most doot-doots and 
pum-pums sound like a heartbeat) is comprised of 
wires and chips, I’m not comfortable tagging some¬ 
thing this slow-brewing “pop.” You won’t find any 
wham-bam here. These guys do something with 
time-take it apart like a jigsaw, piece together 
new metronomes, and watch the second hands 
keep the back ‘n’ forth beats. Rather than slowing 
time down, they make you not care about its ticking 
outside of their sleek, slinky neon world. I’m usu¬ 
ally not taken with electronic music because of its 
impersonality, inevitability, and flawlessness, but 
here, life is supplemented by Jeremy Greenspan’s 
mega-melancholic emotional ooze-of-a-voice 
and Matt Didemus’s ability to coax sweat from his 
machines. Bleeps, drum machine, and synth are 
ever-present, but the sound isn’t all throwback; 
it simultaneously hovers on a timeline somewhere 
over 1981 and 10 years from now. Moments stand 
out as exceptional: during “The Equalizer,” when 
the keys change their tune as Greenspan sighs 
over them, “Spriiiingtime, you’ll wish that we were 


I 


126 PUNK PLANET 









friends”; during the dazzling "Count Souvenirs,” in 
which the lyrics describe commonplace things in 
place of someone who is absent, when the change- 
up elicits the line “hotel lobbies like painful hobbies 
that linger on”; and during “In the Morning,” when 
gasps and sighs over the beats make it sound like 
a computer is crying. The splendor is in the transi¬ 
tions and the sustained notes, when the Junior Boys 
manage to change the emotional state of machin¬ 
ery and put us on pause. (KG) 

Domino, 55 Washington St, Suite 458, Brooklyn, NY 11201, domi- 
norecordco.us 

Jurado, Damien - And Now That I’m in Your 
Shadow, CD 

Underrated Seattle-based singer/songwriter Da¬ 
mien Jurado is back with a small cast of musicians 
in tow and 13 new songs with which to fall in love. 
His voice is as heartbreakingly delicate as ever on 
And Now That I’m in Your Shadow, and he’s in his 
element playing sparse, lo-fi acoustic tunes like 
"I Had No Intentions” and “I Am Still Here,” while 
tastefully rounding out the rest of the record with 
rich, melodic tracks such as “Denton, TX” and the 
ethereal closing song, "Montesano.” Regardless of 
how much additional musicianship is added, Jurado 
and his stories are always the centerpiece, and that’s 
fine with me. (SK) 

Secretly Canadian, 1499 W. Second Street, Bloomington, IN 
47403 

Killing Joke - Hosannas From the Basements 
of Hell, CD 

It is pretty amazing that for as long as Killing Joke has 
been around, their track record has been better than 
most bands who have been around only a fraction of 
the time. I can only name off the top of my head one 
Killing Joke album that I heard and didn’t like at all, and 
that was 1987’s Brighter Than a Thousand Suns, where 
the band failed their obvious attempt at commercial 
pop success, only to redeem themselves a couple years 
later with one of their best albums ever, Extremeties, 
Dirt and Various Repressed Emotions. Age has been 
rather kind to the band since that album, as this one 
packs nearly as much of a punch. This time out, Killing 
Joke has a thicker sound, due perhaps to the strange 
mix. There are still the trademark, atmospheric guitar 
sounds, the meaty bass, and the pissed-off vocals. The 
songs drive ahead at a steady pace but are usually ac¬ 
cented by some keyboards, and there’s that trademark 
Killing Joke melody that hooked me in as a teenager 
and which I still pine for today. It’s rare that a band this 
old can still put out new music that you actually give a 
shit about without altering their sound to try and fit in 
with what’s selling these days, and I’m glad these guys 
can still pull it off. (MXV) 

Cooking Vinyl USA, cooingvinylusa.com 

Lesser Birds of Paradise, the - Space Between, CD 

You know those slow, pretty songs on the Weaker- 
thans’ records? Well, this record is full of stuff like that. 
I point to the famed Canadian band, because the vo¬ 
cals bear some resemblance to John Samson’s singing 
voice; however, they are less brainy and less conversa¬ 
tional. Brushy drums and acoustic guitars carry the 13 
tracks, but surprisingly, don’t get old at all. A cover of 
the lullaby “You Are My Sunshine” is probably the most 
disappointing track on Space Between, but it’s located 


at the very end. Overall, this is a good late-night record 
as it’s best enjoyed in a relaxed state. (EG) 

Contraphonic, PO Box ZZ03, Chicago, IL 60690, contraphonic. 
com 

Mexican Cheerleader - Mexican Mystery Tour, 

CDEP 

These are eight songs that I can say “hell yes!” to. At 
their base, Mexican Cheerleader play some glammy, 
glitter rock kicked in the ass by bouncy garage rock. I 
know that sounds like a lot of bands, but these guys 
do a way better job than a number of bands I’ve 
heard in the last few years. I’ve heard one too many 
groups focus on loosey-goosey guitar bends and vo¬ 
cal who-hoos instead of sweet melodies. Well, Mexi¬ 
can Cheerleader definitely gets the fun vibe right, 
but they go the extra mile by putting dirty power 
pop front and center. Definitely check out its prime 
track, "King Kong,” complete with a cowbell and 
“do-do-do-do” falsetto backing vocals. (EG) 

Underground Communique Records, PO Box 14334, Chicago, IL 
60614, undercomm.org 

Miss Violetta Beauregarde - Odi Profanum 
Vulguset Arceo, CD 

True story: I couldn’t finish listening to Odi Profanum. 

.. (translation: "I hate the common crowd and I spurn 
them”) until I knew what Miss Violetta Beauregarde 
looked like. I think I wanted to be sure that she was 
real. The Internet said “yes,” and showed me an Ital¬ 
ian woman with eyebrow piercings and eyes staring 
like an angry, post-therapy Ramona Quimby. I stared 
back, then continued listening to this, her second al¬ 
bum. Essentially, it sounds pissed off and bruising to 
violet, as looped through one woman and a comput¬ 
er. Beauregarde screams intensely enough to launch 
lungs to sidewalk, and writes the best song titles of 
‘06, if not the entire decade previous. Examples in¬ 
clude: “I’m Wolverine and You’re a Walrus and I’m 
Kicking Your Ass,” “The Unbearable Lightness of a 
Farm Tractor,” and “I’m the Tiananmen Square Guy 
and You All are the Fucking Tanks.” I’m in love. (MC) 

Temporary Residence Ltd., PO Box 60097, Brooklyn, NY 11206, 
temporaryresidence.com 

Morello - Twelve Ways to Breathe, CD 

Morello wrote some interesting songs on Twelve 
Ways To Breathe, and it’s always refreshing to hear 
something with a bit of originality. The guitars and 
songs in general are all over the place-noisy, loud, 
and bouncing from one riff to another. There’s a bit 
of art-rock influence here as some of the guitar lines 
are discordant, almost atonal at times. I’m tempted 
to use Blonde Redhead as a point of reference, even 
though Morello sounds nothing like them. The vo¬ 
cals seemed typical of whatever bands Victory Re¬ 
cords has on the radio they days, with cleanly sung 
“emotional” outpourings on the verses and then 
pissed off, screamed vocals during the chorus. This 
reminded me too much of stuff I’ve heard on MTV, 
and I found it a little off-putting. As far as the music 
goes, though, I have to give Morello a high five for 
their original approach. (KM) 

I Scream, PO BOX 46608, LA, CA 90046, iscreamrecords.com 

Mr. Move, the - Easy, CD 

So this dirty dude named Reggie from New York 
started making electronic beats and rapping to them 
and called it the Mr. Move. The whole idea that Reggie 


MUSIC 

lost years ago but whatever source material they had to go off us was really good, because I wouldn’t have 
known the stuff wasn’t used had it not said so in the liner notes. The live stuff even sounds really good and it’s 
amazing someone even had a tape of something that old! The booklet reproduces the 7” covers, the insert to 
Jan’s Room, and has plenty of really interesting liner notes from one of the band members as well as people 
like Henry Rollins, Thurston Moore, Tesco Vee (the man responsible for bringing the Fix to the world in the 
first place), and Byron Coley. Just like the Blight CD, it’s great to see this stuff finally being made available to 
people who missed it the first time without having to use their mortgage money to buy it. (MXV) 

Touch & Go, touchandgorecords.com 


III Phil Carnage-It Is What It Is, CD 

Fact: people who make music for the sole purpose of hearing their own 
name on repeat only prove that they have nothing worthwhile to say. Even 
when given a small disc with the capability of containing up to 80 minutes 
of music, nothing else exists outside of that particular line of vision. In that 
respect, "III” Phil Carnage has thick blinders on, and they would seem to be 
pointed at his visage in a mirror. Truly, the problem with music starts when 
it’s taken as nothing more than a joke, made for no purpose other than to 
stroke the ego of the artist who put it forth. The sad thing is that III Phil is completely serious throughout this 
small minded, immature, sexist tirade of an album, as he rhymes about the most empty, superficial fixations, 
name dropping synthetic porn stars while attempting to growl out some aggressive proclamation of his own 
greatness. If it isn’t about having sex, it’s about taking a girl home, and if it isn’t about taking them home it’s 
about how one time they sucked him off-but then he of course has the good sense to thank his grandparents 
in the liner notes. This must be what it’s like to be inside the mind of a man who thinks he’s the only person 
on earth with a penis. What is offered here is a self-involved, tired regurgitation of Limp Bizkit and Linkin 
Park, but without the unwarranted commercial success. Futher, it is put forth by a bland MC with a misplaced 
anger complex and a nonexistent sense of creativity, rhythm, or confidence in his own flow-which is no 
small wonder when the rhymes are so flaccid. Completely devoid of hooks, the only thing being slaughtered 
here is Carnage’s own career. By spitting about nothing relevant to anyone outside of himself, he only proves 
himself to be the worst kind of bigot, and this is the aural equivalent of used toilet paper being shoved down 
your mouth. (SBM) 

Suga’ Shack Entertainment, sugashackentertainment.com 




Maps of Norway - Sister Stations, CD 

Pointing out the problems on Sister Stations is easy. To be clear, the record 
is not loaded with flubbed notes or smooth-jazz covers of Ramones songs. 
None of the songs are about thongs. None instruct listeners how to do a nov¬ 
elty dance. No, the flaws on this record are particularly evident because most 
of the album is quite good, and when an arrangement or line that does not 
match the quality of the rest of the album, it has nowhere to hide. In other 
words, the record is like an otherwise good apple with an ugly bruise showing 
through the skin. If pointing out the problems-some flat singing and the occasional resemblance to Inter¬ 
pol—is easy because they are so obvious, ignoring or forgiving them is just as easy because Maps of Norway 
gives listeners so much to like. In general, the band has not introduced any new styles. Instead, it studies 
post-punk and dance punk, two genres that have been en vogue for most of this decade. The band avoids 
completely cloning the usual suspects-Joy Division, New Order, and Gang of Four-by doing three things: It 
inserts abrupt shifts in the arrangements and atmospheric interludes, the rhythm section tries to hypnotize 
listeners with its grooves, and the band lets a woman sing for once. "Traffic” opens the album with white 
noise, scraped guitar strings, and Jeff Ball’s adventurous drumming. The introduction is a preemptive mea¬ 
sure that distracts the listener from bass player Matt Helgeson’s impersonation of New Order’s Peter Hook 
throughout the rest of the track. A somewhat experimental track, "4 Digit Six,” breaks down and reloads with 
a wheezing keyboard line straight out of a Dr. Dre production. In “Manners,” Ball and Helgeson’s instruments 
summon Ian Curtis’ spirit to dance maniacally in front of the stage. Then, Eric Hanson mechanically strums 
his guitar, and Rebecca Leigh sings like Patti Smith. Like “Traffic,” “Matches” begins with solo drumming. The 
band sets aside the initial rhythm for a long verse of skipping rock. The chorus brings back the drum motif, 
but this time, it leads to a reverb-heavy guitar interlude, Leigh’s careful vocals, and a less aggressive tempo. 
Finally, the band essentially combines all the separate sections of the song before repeating the main rhythm 
motif at the song’s climax. During such moments, it seems that Maps of Norway has found the path to a fine 
sound of its own. (JM) 

Guilt Ridden Pop, PO Box 11894, St. Paul, MN 55111, guiltriddenpop.com 


Mass Movement of the Moth/Catalyst - Two Thousand and 666, CD 

I’m really excited to review this one because not only do I already own this on vinyl, but I’m actually going to 
see Mass Moth play tonight! Anyway, this is a fun split from the always excellent Perpetual Motion Machine 
and Electric Human Project labels. I should note that instead of designating a band to each side the tracks 
are split, so that through the entire LP/CD the bands are taking turns: one Moth song, one Catalyst song, etc. 


PUNK PLANET 127 







REVIEWER SPOTLIGHTS 


Reviewer Spotlight: Dave Hofer (DH) 

Casket Lottery, the, Moving Mountains. Poor emo. The genre has gone from such greats as bands like I 
Hate Myself and Braid to whatever it is today. Bummer. Thankfully, records are forever, and Kansas City’s 
the Casket Lottery put out a few brilliant ones. The second of three full-length albums released on Second 
Nature, Moving Mountains is a phenomenal example of feelings being spooned directly out of someone’s 
heart and cut into grooves. The Casket Lottery is one of the few bands who only got better with time, writing 
heartbreaking songs that almostfeel uplifting, but the music—especially the vocal arrangements-is just too 
despondent-sounding to be entirely happy. Like that episode of the Simpsons where Bart claims you’re able 
to “pinpoint the second” Ralph Wiggum’s “heart rips in half,” my sympathies really extend to vocalist and 
guitarist Nathan Ellis, because the guy sounds like he hasn’t had a good day in years. The trio’s music is the 
fidgety guy who can’t think of the right thing to say to a girl; the digging of one’s shoe toe into the ground 
when nervous. Moving Mountains has been my go-to album after two different breakups, and lyrics like, "it’s 
raining outside / of course we have to fight” were right there, answering my plea for sympathy. Nine short 
songs long, this record is made for the repeat switch on your CD player or stereo. 

And if the world ends in our sleep / at least we will be in the same dream: Casket Lottery/Small Brown 
Bike, Split; Get Rad, Say Fuck No to Rules, Man; Dennis Wilson, Pacific Ocean Blue; Edan, Beauty and the Beat, 
Nuclear Assault, Handle With Care. 

H Reviewer Spotlight: Ari Joffe (AJ) 

Fu Manchu, Return Jo Earth 91-95. Fu Manchu was the first stoner rock band I got into. 
I remember seeing their video for a song called “Evil Eye” on this public access heavy 
metal show back in the late ‘90s, and I was instantly hooked. The sound, the vibe-it 
was exactly what I was looking for. They totally reminded me of Mudhoney (who 
weren’t really doing much at the time), but slightly more metal and way more rehearsed. So, as an addictive 
personality such as me will do, I had to run out and buy as much Fu Manchu as I could get my grubby little 
paws on. My interest in their music has waned over the course of their last few albums (too polished and/or 
they’re treading the same ground they already mastered), but their early material blasts from my boom box 
on the regular. Return To Earth 91-95 collects their first three EP’s-released between 1991 and 1993- on one 
disc. It’s the Fu at their darkest, fuzziest, grungiest best. The guitars are super thick and muffled, and the 
vocals are sung in a real lackadaisical “dude” type of way. And the music just grooves. It’s got a hip-shaking 
quality to it. If Jeff Spicolli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High and three of his chiba monkey buddies were 
living in some flop house, working shit jobs, and ditched the whole surfing thing in favor of muscle car racing, 
this would be the soundtrack to their lives. 

Keeping rock ‘n’ roll evil: Acid King, III; Imperial Battlesnake, Attack!; Couldron, Four Winds; Eternal Elysium, 
Searching Low & High; Trifog, Demo 2006. 


Reviewer Spotlight: Steve Kane (SK) 

Magnetic Fields, the, The House of Tomorrow. A few years before Stephin Merritt composed his three-disc 
opus, 69 Love Songs, he released the frequently overlooked House of Tomorrow EP. In comparison to his later 
work, the five songs here are hardly as grand or ambitious, but they are warm and endearing. Each song is 
roughly two-and-a- half minutes of looped, sampled beats, and sporadic instrumentation with Merritt’s 
trademark baritone as the guide. In fact, if it weren’t for lyrical variation the songs would go nowhere as 
there is no musical transition. Like most of his records, the subject of love is predominant throughout the 
record, and Merritt’s metaphors and poetics are at a peak with lines like, “You and me in the waiting room 
/ of a disused railroad station / scavenging for a few antiques / We’ll make a fortune just have patience / If 
we find an old signal box you can write your dissertation.” House of Tomorrow is not the crowning jewel of 
Stephin Merritt’s prolific career, but it is a diamond in the rough worthy of discovering. 

Seasonal Change: Elliott, False Cathedrals; Au Revoir Simone, Verses of Comfort, Assurance and Salvation; 
Company Flow, Funcrusher Plus; Gracer, Voices Travel; Cat Power, The Greatest. 



Reviewer Spotlight: Chay Lawrence (CL) 

Septic Death, Now That I Have Your Attention, What Do I Do With It? The overriding 
impression I have of Septic Death will always be one of complete disorientation. Al¬ 
ways seemingly struggling with some adversity, just beyond earshot, either technical 
or of a more metaphysical nature, Septic Death exuded an air of complete dishevel- 
ment on numerous levels. While on occasion they played spluttering inept hyper-speed hardcore in the 
sub-Negative Approach vein, at other times they’d drop in a ton of effects, on the guitar, vocals, and bass.. 
. hell, why not on everything? Dwid called it “horror hardcore”-he wasn’t wrong. Like a weird early Factory 
Records side-project filtered through the unreleased Void album, Septic Death’s legacy is one of horror and 
lunacy, the embodiment of an era in hardcore when it was OK for Siege to drop in an extended saxophone 
break on a lengthy noise track. Dripping with a dreadful expectancy (and a ton of reverb), the songs on Now 
That I Have Your Attention, What Do I Do With It? prefigure a horror never fully realized, but nonetheless 
terrifying. While still known to many as merely being “Pushead’s band,” Septic Death’s legacy is one of the 
foremost in American hardcore of the 1980s, and every bit as strange and unique as their singer’s artwork. 


presents in the Mr. Move is heavily image based: be as 
skuzzy as possible, at all times, in every aspect of this 
musical endeavor. If a white dude wants to dip into 
the rap/hip-hop scene, I’m all for it, but what I’m not 
for is the way he downgrades this genre, although he 
is producing music in it. The beats are simple, and so is 
Reggie’s brainwave pattern. Tee hee hee, he compares 
a hamburger to a woman’s rump! Har, har, har... Reg¬ 
gie thinks all women should have “titties full of beer!” 
Even the excuse of irony couldn’t save this skeezoid’s 
sad songwriting ability. The easiest thing about the 
Mr. Move’s album was when I removed the disc from 
my CD player and stuck it under my drink. (JB) 

Booty Bomb, themrmove.com 

My Lost Cause - Dying for the Cure, CD 

You know who would have really creamed for this 
band about five years ago? Everyone. Especially Drive 
Thru Records and Fueled by Ramen. It’s hard not to 
feel a tinge of sadness for this band that you fear 
might have missed the boat on a genre that’s bound 
to come back around, but will they still be here? Dy¬ 
ing for the Cure is a strong enough record that it could 
resurrect some of those old feelings for Saves the Day 
and Everclear, bringing them together in congregation 
for some more dancing and weeping over problems. 
These are swooning boys, but Derek Jones’ dynamite 
vocals and un-sapped up lyrics are the focal points for 
this album that harnesses a lot of power, a lot of drive, 
a lot of creativity, and even more heart. You hope it’s 
not too late for them to make a go of it. (SM) 

Self-released, mylostcause.com 

New Alchemy, the - Organic Universe, CD 

Per Svensson is the originator of the New Alchemy, 
and this is his second album of gothic, experimental 
rock from his base in Sweden. The lyrics and artwork 
are doused in the occult arts and mysticism: all-see¬ 
ing eyes, snakes eating their own tails, mandalas, 
skeletons, death images, and wonderful symbol- 
rich images from ancient alchemical manuals—all of 
which provides nice packaging for the lyrics and liner 
notes. Most of the work is guitar-based, often folky 
but also droney, within environs of acid-noise guitar, 
sound samples, and psych-rock rumbles. Svensson 
started out in Gothenburg punk scene, and a glimpse 
of those elements can be heard this latest trajectory. 
Some tracks can be noisy in an industrial manner, as 
“Crashing Guitars Against Amplifiers,” but other piec¬ 
es can be gently blissful like “The Light of the Sun” or 
“Information Rain.” On “Medication/lllumination,” 
you hear the clear influence of Velvet Underground 
psychedelia, even doing the spoken vocals. It’s a 
late-night album, perfect for lonely, rainy evenings, 
or material for an all-night drive with headlights, 
streetlamps, and darkness. Next time around, I hope 
the New Alchemy have a budget to mix it up, so it’s a 
headphone playground as well. (BA) 

iDEAL, idealrecordings.com 

New London Fire -1 Sing the Body Holographic, CD 

Full of faux-love songs that self-consciously attempt 
to be quirky, New London Fire specializes in a strange 
breed of soft rock with a nasally lead vocalist that 
sounds half comatose most of the time. No surprise 
there-seems most people would have the same 
problem if they too had to sing such derivative pap. 


Though the band claims to be cinematic, everything 
here is toned down, mid-tempo, and muddled, at 
times sounding like a synth orchestra jam put into 
the hands of vaguely restless twentysomethings. 
Listening to this-their debut album-is like drinking 
tepid water and being mildly offended by how bland 
it is. It is white rice and padded corners, completely 
and intentionally harmless-and only through that 
fact does it become truly distasteful. (SBM) 

Eyeball, PO Box 179, Kearny, NJ 07032, eyeballrecords.com 

No Pasaran - Plug Into The Sand, CDEP 

Considering the influx of tame pop punk that the 
Garden State has been cranking out for years, it’s 
pleasing to come across a band from the area that 
packs some grit. No Pasaran utilizes a fair amount 
of DC post-punk tactics, primarily those of angular 
surface-level guitar play, rhythmical dance breaks, 
and atypical transitions. The lyrics, direct and 
pointed at Jersey’s rusted urban ruin and Brooklyn’s 
social pecking order, provide for some interest¬ 
ing concrete points within a sound that’s continu¬ 
ously in flux. There’s a lot potential in No Pasaran’s 
knack for creative guitar multi-parting and tactful 
production, but there’s weakness in their regular 
disjointing and Tom Barrett’s nasal speak-sung vo¬ 
cals that are dangerously derivative of Les Savy Fav. 
Keep your distance, but maintain a scout’s ear as the 
band develops. (BM) 

No Pasaran! c/o Romel Espinel 1005 Central Ave. #2B Union City, 
NJ 07087, myspace.com/pasarnno 

Now It’s Overhead - Dark Light Daybreak, CD 

Dark Light Daybreak is more than a poetic album 
title. It accurately captures the mood of the third LP 
by Andy LeMaster’s project Now It’s Overhead. Sure, 
the lyrics repeat a few key words to create a mood 
of limbo, and LeMaster writes sturdy melodies, but 
the record's mood really emerges from LeMaster’s 
production. He concentrates on in-between sounds. 
Electric piano chimes but, at the same time, sounds 
muted and percussive. Lead and backing vocals 
collide and begin to drone. Borrowing My Bloody 
Valentine’s sound, guitars simultaneously strum 
and squall. The competing, ambiguous sounds form 
a sonic gloaming. In the end, LeMaster’s melodies 
tend to rise, bend higher in pitch, and reach for 
the heavens. The record’s mood moves away from 
the twilight and toward the dawn. Although dawn 
brings uncertainty, it also brings hope, bridging the 
negative to the positive. Dark Light Daybreak is not 
a terribly exciting or catchy record: it won’t start a 
party or spread any big ideas, but that feeling of 
hope lingers, and can rub off on the listener. (JM) 

Saddle Creek, PO Box 8554, Omaha, NE 68108-0554, saddle- 
creek.com 

Oneida - Happy New Year, CD 

Genres merrily collide on this eclectic and care¬ 
fully crafted 11-song disc, which marks the 100th 
release for Bloomington’s Jagjaguwar label. Mel¬ 
ancholy jaunts bleed into electronic cut-ups. Fre¬ 
netic dancehair exercises rub elbows with disso¬ 
nant pseudo-acoustic ballads. Poppy bridges lead 
listeners toward a closing requiem fleshed out with 
spare keyboard/piano motifs and horror-house in¬ 
terjections. Simply put, it’s exactly what you’d ex¬ 
pect from these Brooklyn vets, who shine brightest 


128 PUNK PLANET 







when the sometimes-mutated forms they adopt as 
their own are predictably unpredictable. There are 
threads running through the disc, of course, but 
the group’s latest full-length may be better expe¬ 
rienced as a sequence of disjointed moments, each 
lovingly composed and welcoming in its defiance of 
expectations. (JV) 

Jagjaguwar/Brah, 1499 W. Second St., Bloomington, IN 47403, 
jagjaguwar.com 

Pan for Punks - A Steelpan Tribute to the 
Ramones, CD 

What the fuck? I have heard a lot in my years in the 
world of Ramones tributes. This one takes the cake. 
All girl bands doing Ramones covers? Yawn! Ramones 
covers done in multiple languages? Puh-lease. Have 
you heard the all orchestral versions of your favor¬ 
ite Ramones songs? Pfft. Wait, stop and listen to this 
one. Tracy is a one-man band of drums, bass, and a 
set of steel drums. His steel drum work is incredible, 
and he leaves in the counts and “hey-ho’s” to keep 
it feeling more like Johnny, Tommy, Joey, and Dee 
Dee. I would absolutely recommend this to all fans 
of the Ramones. I do have a major gripe with this 
CD, though. The drums and bass take away from the 
steel drums. Tracy’s ability is incredible and it should 
shine on its own. The DVD video included is worth the 
price alone to see how the magic is done on the steel. 
Fun stuff, and a nice surprise is this mundane, bland 
world of punk. (EA) 

Self-released, panforpunks.com 

Parks, Cale - Illuminated Manuscript, CD 

Aloha’s Cale Parks has crafted a rather difficult, but 
often rewarding, solo record. Almost a completely 
instrumental release, the tracks build on loops that 
reach a hypnotic level. Sometimes this is good, but 
by the end of the record, you might be saying uncle. 
Aloha has always been an adventurous band with 
post-hardcore, post-rock, and AM pop leanings, but 
the songs are always the key. With Parks experiment¬ 
ing around the room with all sorts of instruments and 
studio toys, the key sometimes feels like it’s lost in 
the pile. (E6) 

Polyvinyl, polyvinylrecords.com 

Peaches - Impeach My Bush, CD 

“Fuck Bush” and “fuck me” aren’t exactly revolu¬ 
tionary concepts for a 2006 protest album. So it was 
doubly brave for Peaches, the raunchy queen of elec¬ 
troclash, to use both on her third album, Impeach My 
Bush. It would have been easy to descend into knee- 
jerk anger and sex for sex’s sake (both formulas that 
have their place, if only everyone else wasn’t using 
’em, too), but Peaches does neither. Impeach My 
Bush is indeed angry and sexy, but it’s also lyrically 
smart (“Slippery dick / it’s just a fish in the Atlantic”) 
and opinionated, as opposed to judgmental. (That 
last is a tricky one, and few do it as well as Peaches 
does.) Above all, it’s completely rad to be able to 
(read: want to) dance to an album that’s not only 
constructively angry at the current administration, 
but anti-heteronormativity, too. And you’ll want to 
grind, because this is no hollow bedroom electro¬ 
clash—it’s rich and rocking, and includes collabora¬ 
tions with Beth Ditto, Joan Jett, Samantha Maloney 
(Hole), Josh Homme, and Leslie Feist. Peaches has 


upped her own ante, too. Her first two records were 
largely MC505 affairs, but Impeach features Moogs, 
808’s, guitar, and live drums. Listen long enough, and 
you just might be ready to fight back in ‘08. (MC) 

XL, xlrecordings.com 

Polar Bear Club - The Redder the Better, CDEP 

I don’t think I ever got sick of mid-’90s emotional 
hardcore, and Polar Bear Club have managed to com¬ 
bine all my favorite bands from that time to create 
this emotionally charged five-song EP like it was 
still ‘96. With powerful guitar melodies, poppy chord 
progressions, and vocals that sound uncannily like 
the guy from Hot Water Music, I can imagine these 
guys might have had a large following 10 or so years 
ago. The songs here are poppy, but still retain a cer¬ 
tain amount of punk-like aggression (another nod to 
Hot Water Music), but there are a couple of twinkly 
guitar lines that recall some of your favorite Midwest 
emo bands: during one song I was reminded of early 
Promise Ring and, when the next song came up, I 
thought of Braid. If you’re one of the few people who 
didn’t get rid of your entire Jade Tree collection when 
you got to college, I highly suggest checking out this 
EP. It’s excellently written and could have come from 
your high school record collection. (KM) 

Triple Attack, 610 Brooks Rd, West Henrietta, NY 14586, tripleat- 
tack.com 

Luchador, 32 Ivy Cottage Lane, Rochester, NY 14623, luchador- 
records.com 

Polkaholics, the - Polka Uber Alles, CD 

With a name like Grayewski, a girl’s got to know a 
thing about polka. Excitedly, I put on Polka Uber 
Alles with hopes for a balance between the polkas 
my mom spins on the weekends and something 
that might interest young blood in the traditionally 
geriatric genre. While lyrics have never been polka’s 
forte (e.g. the classic “I don’t want her / you can have 
her / she’s too fat for me”), the Polkaholics hit a new 
chicks-and-beer obsessed low and don’t necessarily 
change much for the better (although theirs goes "I 
don’t want her / you can have her / she’s too smart 
for me”). The glam-metal polka “Sauerkraut is 
Sweet” is easily the most egregious offense and big¬ 
gest mistake. But, admittedly, this is all shtick, and 
the polka is for happy times, so how could a Polack 
disapprove? (KG) 

Self-released, PO Box 803664, Chicago, IL 60680, thepolkahol- 
ics.com 

Protestant - Make Peace With the Rope You 
Hang From, LP 

Before I even get to the music on this record, I have 
to give props to Protestant for assembling such a 
nice looking record. The cover art is amazing, and 
the tri-colored vinyl is a nice touch. (Yeah, I’m a re¬ 
cord collector geek. Deal with it.) Protestant leaves 
me scratching my head as far as comparisons go. 
They combine tech, metal, sludge, and grind, but 
not in the ways that it’s typically done. I could see 
this appealing to fans of Tragedy or From Ashes Rise, 
but musically, Protestant is much more diverse and 
makes those bands look kind of silly. At first, Make 
Peace With the Rope You Hang From didn’t hit me 
very hard, but after examining the lyric sheet, I real¬ 
ized the record is mislabeled and I was listening to 
the second side. Once heard in the correct context, I 


MUSIC 

Both of the bands are two of the more creative things going within the screamo genre these days. Catalyst 
bring a little grunge influence to their screamy, post-hardcore leanings. The songs definitely recall early 
Sub Pop records (they got the guitars down pat), and when the singer of the band is screaming just right I 
swear it sounds like Kurt Cobain. Listing to their tracks brought me back to a time when people still bought 
Mudhoney records. They also have the best song title I’ve heard this year with “Smoke Crack Worship Satan.” 
Like Catalyst, Mass Moth also have a different take on traditional hardcore/screamo sound with their addi¬ 
tion of “creepy circus” keyboards, new-wavey, danceable beats, and an interesting dub/ska influence. With 
each record, these guys have been constantly improving their sound. The guitar melodies have gotten more 
complex, the keyboards help to complement the music more, and the bass lines (without a doubt my favorite 
part) are just breathtakingly awesome in the groove department. It’s inspiring to hear a ska/dub part in a 
band like this because it seems like so many others just follow a path that’s already been treaded many times 
before. The vocals on their songs range from screams to spoken parts drenched in an underwater effects-yet 
another unique attribute that I can’t be more excited about. With people constantly complaining about how 
stale the hardcore scene is, I’d have to recommend these two new Virginia bands that aren’t afraid to mix 
things up a bit. This CD is a perfect introduction, and any screamy hardcore fan should pick it up, especially 
those who complain about every band sounding the same. My only complaint is the track listing doesn’t 
specify who’s playing what song, and might confuse those who aren’t already familiar with at least one of 
the bands. (KM) 

Perpetual Motion Machine, PO Box 657, Hamilton, VA 20159, theperpetualmotionmachine.com 
Electric Human Project, 500 South Union St., Wilmington, DE19805, electrichumanproject.com 


Mika Miko - CYSLABF, CD 

This one was already a staple of my stereo for a couple of months before 
I got it for review. When I first found out about this album I tried to think 
back to the Mika Miko 7” that I reviewed for Punk Planet a while back. I 
knew it was good, but that’s all I could remember. Upon further investiga¬ 
tion and re-listening, it was really good... but only really good. Not great, 
like this record. The 7” was easy to lump into the Riot-Girl style. They’ve 
done a good job of expanding their sound in the time since the 7”. The 
Riot-Girl sound is still there in minute traces. They mix it together with 
heavy doses of early SoCal punk influences (Black Flag/Redd Kross) mixed with British post-punk (Delta 5). 
The opening chords of “Take it Serious” gave me the same feeling as when I first heard the opening chords of 
Black Flag’s Nervous Breakdown EP. The distorted chords immediately burrow into your brain and force you to 
listen. “Capricorinations” follows it up, providing a nice contrast with its dancey beat. “Take Hold” reminds me 
of Redd Kross circa 1981 jamming out on “Standing in Front of Poseur” with Delta 5 as a backing band. “Busi¬ 
ness Cats” reminds me of the Pop Group if they had actually written a rocking song. “Oh, Head Spin!” ends the 
album with a rocking/surfy feel. Clocking in at 20:57, there’s no room for crap. The fat and filler was trimmed 
off and just the best, most rocking parts were included. It’s great to see that Mika Miko has fully grasped the 
concept of album writing at such an early stage of their musical existence. Hopefully they don’t go the route 
of a lot of their influences and degenerate into a bad disco band. Buy this album. Go to their shows. Support 
this band, because they are amazing. (DA) 

Kill Rock Stars, PO Box 418,120 State Ave. NE, Olympia, WA 98501, killrockstars.com 

Retching Red - Scarlet Whore of War, CD 

Just over a year since Retching Red shocked the shit out of the under¬ 
ground with Get Your Red Wings, they’re back with a second full length. 
Tilt fans won’t believe that Cinder Block has this much rage in her, but 
she’s just as good at screaming in Retching Red as she was at her famous 
melodic singing in Tilt. Cyco Loco of Oppressed Logic still kicks ass as 
well, and Retching Red definitely sounds more like Oppressed Logic than 
Tilt. Retching Red isn’t catching on as quickly as they should be, at least 
not outside of California. Their two nationwide tours resulted in shows 
ranging from huge to barren, which is not a good sign of these arguably dwindling punk times. I think 
the problem is that kids into hardcore are reluctant to go see a band fronted by a pop-punk legend, but 
they’re missing out on one of today’s very best bands. Songs such as “Blue Kid Trapped in a Red State,” 
“Stop Breeding,” and “Lying Sacks of Shit” are instant classics, rivaling any of the material of Retching 
Red’s members’ former bands. The lyrics are haunting and clever, as on “Leviathan,” in which Cinder Block 
tackles Hurricane Katrina conspiracy theories. Even on more straightforward tracks such as “Unmarket¬ 
able” and “Smoke Yourself Sick,” Retching Red manages to take familiar punk subject matter and create 
songs that are oddly original. Retching Red will never see the success that Tilt did, but the underground 
should give Retching Red a listen before the band disappears into the great punk abyss. My only hesita¬ 
tion with this album is that it isn’t available on vinyl as of yet. Someone needs to put out both of Retching 
Red’s full lengths as LP’s. Who knows? Maybe they’d get more respect in the underground with vinyl in 
the mix. (AE) 

Rodent Popsicle, PO Box 1143, Allston, MA, rodentpopsicle.com 















REVIEWER SPOTLIGHTS 


Sold back to the US in the form of drove upon drove of bands from all over the globe and still alive in countless 
bands today (god only knows what Japanese thrash would sound like today if Septic Death had never hap¬ 
pened); it’s truly a sad fact that the band’s back catalog has been in and out of print for nearly 20 years. 

I’ve made a huge mistake: Negative Approach, Live at Touch and Go Records 25th Anniversary Block Party; 
V/A, The Complete Motown Singles M 1 (1959-1961); Xasthur, Subliminal Genocide ; the Fix, At the Speed of 
Twisted Thought ; Mastodon, Blood Mountain. 


Reviewer Spotlight: Justin Marciniak (JM) 

Talking Heads, Remain in Light. Shouldn’t this album sound dated by now? Def 
Leppard records sound like tapered acid-washed jeans. The production of a lot of 
late-’80s hip hop won’t help anyone get crunk. Flannel shirts lasted longer than some 
popular grunge of the mid-’90s. Remain in Light, on the other hand, is an album of 
polyrhythmic post-funk performed by a cerebral new wave band. Yet Talking Heads’ fourth record, released 
in 1980, probably will always sound modern. OK, maybe the very Van Halen lead guitar at the end of third 
track, “The Great Curve,” sounds like it still belongs in 1980. The next song, at least in theory, should sound 
as retro as the selections on ‘80s hits compilations advertised on infomercials. To this day, though, “Once in 
a Lifetime” sounds otherworldly and ahead of its time. “Same as it ever was,” indeed. That classic ends side 
A, the LP’s funkier side, and where David Byrne’s interest in world music, Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz’s 
incredibly credible funk chops, Jerry Harrison’s versatile keyboards, and Brian Eno’s ambition and brilliant 
organization collide. The frantic rhythms and layered details are appropriate partners for Byrne’s twitchy, 
paranoid lyrics about identity and global intrigue on an introspective level. And Remain in Light serves lis¬ 
teners who want to tumble and tangle their limbs on the dance floor or contemplate and unravel Byrne’s 
lyrics. The record is universal and timeless-a critic’s way of calling something excellent. 

Dinner and dishes music: Sonic Youth, Sister, Pixies, Doolittle; the Fiery Furnaces, Bitter Tea ; My Bloody 
Valentine, Isn’t Anything; the M’s, S/T. 

Reviewer Spotlight: Krystle Miller (KM) 

Case, Neko, Blacklisted. I’ll admit I stayed away from Neko Case’s music for too long because as a teenager in 
the South, I grew up hating most of the people who listened to it. Years later, my hatred died down, and I found 
this CD in the used bin of a record store. I’d been hearing how great Neko was for a long time and decided to 
pick it up on a whim. Looking back on the way I used to feel about country, it’s funny this is one of my favorite 
albums. Somewhere deep in my brain, the teenage me cringes. However, I now know that comparing Neko to 
popular country music is like comparing Reign in Blood-era Slayer to whatever album Metallica last put out; 
they can both be called metal, but they’re completely different styles. Unlike a lot of new country, Neko’s sound 
is firmly rooted in the golden age of country (think Patsy Cline or Loretta Lynn) and completely lacks the plastic, 
pop-rock shine of popular country. If any of the first country artists were alive today I’m sure that they would 
be more of a Neko Case fan than whatever’s currently playing on CMT, as Neko’s songs embody a sort of eerie 
darkness and working class sadness that much of those old songs had. If that hasn’t convinced some of Punk 
Planet’s fierce genre-ists, consider this: a video off her first album was prohibited from playing on CMT be¬ 
cause it was “too dark”; she has rejected major label offers-opting instead to stay on indie labels; and rumor 
has it, she was banned from the Grand Ole Opry after playing there a few years ago. 

Current musics: The Big Sleep, Son of the Tiger, Psychic Ills, Dins; The Vaselines, A Complete History, Sonic 
Youth, Sister, Dead Meadow, S/T. 

Reviewer Spotlight: Steve Mizek (SRM) 

High Rise, Live. Japanese band High Rise unleashed their first overdriven assault in 
1986, High Rise II, which started forest fires with incinerating solos and knocked down 
doors with a battering ram rhythm section. Their psychedelic worship was tempered 
by a devotion to thrashed out punk rock, as if laying a branding iron on the ass of the 
Ramones’ early releases. Eight years and one album later, High Rise recorded what would become their 
defining moment. Since their debut, the band focused progressively less on punking out and more on the 
fiery psychedelia of Blue Cheer and ‘60s homeland heroes, Les Rallizes Denudes. Live captures the spirited 
trio at their rawest and most comfortable. Listeners might as well be inches away from dilapidating stacks 
of amplifiers pushing hellacious riffs. Guitarist Munehiro Nirito dominates tunes with mangled and seem¬ 
ingly endless leads. Though the vocals and bass work of Asahito Nanjo are intentionally buried in the mix, 
his walking melodic pulses and calmly intoned vocals pop through the fuzz just enough to be a presence. 
High Rise paints the aural canvas with the widest, funkiest brush in the toolbox-swaths of bristling feed¬ 
back riffs. Live doesn’t offer listeners much breathing room with pyroclastic versions of “Ikon,” “Mira,” and 
“Mainliner” (except for the eight-and-a-half minute fuzz boogie jam, “Door”), but it’s one of the finest 
ways to drown in sound. 

Five other records going round: Neil Young, After the Gold Rush; DJ Drama & Li’l Wayne, Dedication M 2; 
Thin Lizzy, Jailbreak; V/A, Pop Ambient 2006, Thee Headcoats, Beached Earls. 





got a feel for the record, and it really blew me away. 
"Fuck Me Eyes” begins with a drawn-out intro that 
suggests emerging from a bomb shelter, post-nu¬ 
clear war. The whole album carries on in that same 
atmospheric, vision-inducing way. It’s one of those 
albums that is so cohesive, you have to take it as a 
whole. It definitely blows away their split with Rhino 
Charge. (DA) 

930 E. Brady St., Milwaukee, Wl 53Z06, myspace.com/protes- 
tantmilwaukee 

Rose, Ethan-CeilingSongs, CD 

At first glance, Ceiling Songs, the third album from 
Portland’s Ethan Rose, seems overly precious: sil¬ 
very gray cover, flowery name, and a trio of songs 
called “One,” “Two,” and “Three.” Honestly, it sat 
on my desk for a while. But when I listened at last, 

I felt stupid for not doing so long, long before. Rose 
created Ceiling Songs by removing notes from an 
old-school “Happy Birthday” player piano roll and a 
“Jingle Bells” music box, then adding strings, brass, 
percussion, and a smidgen of electronics. You hear 
everything from scratch on paper to fingers on keys. 
The result is gentle without being passive, warm but 
never oatmeal-boring. It lands somewhere between 
musique concrete and drone, and it’s arguably the 
freshest thing you’ll hear this year. (MC) 

Locust, PO Box 2Z04Z6, Chicago, IL 60622, locustmusic.com 

Rux, Carl Hancock - Good Bread Alley, CD 

You couldn’t find Robert Randolph and the Family 
Band or Solomon Burke playing a shitty, hole-in- 
the-wall blues club, and that’s a shame. It’s prob¬ 
ably the best place for them and where their music 
would be greatly appreciated. But that’s exactly 
where you could (and would) find Carl Hancock Rux 
playing the contents of this contribution to Thirsty 
Ear’s “Blue Series,” with a lean and smoking back¬ 
ing ensemble. He cooks gospel and blues into a 
little storm steeped with a more morose, bottom- 
of-the-ocean deep voice than Randolph’s, but one 
that carries with it a wealth. As silly as it sounds, it 
wouldn’t be surprising to someday hear that Andre 
3000 or Kanye want to collaborate with Rux and his 
soulful ways. (SM) 

Self-released, carlhancockrux.com 

Sadies, the - Tales of the Rat Fink, CD 

The Sadies are, without a doubt, my favorite current 
non-heavy band. It’s total bullshit that more people 
don’t know about this group. Especially with all the 
garbage that gets so much attention, not only in 
the mainstream media, but in the underground as 
well. If you don’t own a copy of their 2004 release, 
Favourite Colours, you need to head on over to your 
favorite record store and buy it ASAP. Or just hit up 
the Yep Roc Records web store and order yourself a 
copy. Then go get this new one, which is apparently 
the soundtrack to this movie called Tales of the Rat 
Fink that’s all about Kustom car hero Ed “Big Daddy” 
Roth. I’ve never heard of the guy, but I’m going to 
try to track down this flick just to see the images 
that link up to these short instrumental bullets the 
Sadies have fired off. The 26 cuts presented here run 
the gamut of the Sadies’ musical styles: psychedelic 
garage rock, chicken-pickin’ honky tonk, spaghetti 
western rip-offs, and reverb-drenched rockabilly. 
The band has always been heavy on instrumentals, 


with the exception of their last record, so they made 
up for it with this release. If you ever have an occa¬ 
sion to hear this band’s music, don’t pass it up. The 
Sadies rock. (AJ) 

Yep Roc, PO Box 4821 Chapel Hill, NC 27515, yeproc.com 

Selmanaires, the - Here Come the Selmanaires, CD 

Here Come the Selmanaires was a pleasant surprise 
in my review bundle this month. This CD has a lot 
going on in terms of musical styles, combing surf 
rock, garage rock, and rock ‘n’ roll music into one 
smooth and enjoyable disc. It’s a common mistake 
of most bands that venture into multi-genre blend¬ 
ing to end up with a finished product that is jerky 
and disoriented. The Selmanaires understand the 
importance of juxtaposition, and therefore avoided 
sounding like a messy weird jumble of unrelated 
songs; they’ve also created a solid, catchy, and up¬ 
beat album. I wouldn’t be surprised to see more of 
this band lurking around at festivals or on college 
radio in the future. (JB) 

Simeon Walunas, internationalhits.com 

Sleepy Eyes of Death - S/T, CDEP 

When M83 released Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost 
Ghosts in 2003, bunches of people went flippy for 
shoegaze again and gave the genre another go. Now 
three years later, the lazily-named Sleepy Eyes of 
Death (SED) have released an EP totally ignorant of 
the origins of shoegaze and an unhealthy fixation 
on the M83 sound. Without so much as changing up 
the synthesizer tones or adding a new instrument, 
SED plod through four tunes sorely lacking ambi¬ 
tion, fresh ideas, and M83’s songwriting chops. The 
vintage synths are weakly milked for slightly tense 
moods in front of a monochromatic guitar backdrop. 
The group’s one-piece rhythm section is often neg¬ 
ligently sparse; they might as well have used a met¬ 
ronome in place of a drum machine. And only during 
the hidden last track does this unflagging formula 
waver for some cavernous washes of sound. Instead 
of settling for the dollar-store version of shoegaze 
revival, pick up the aforementioned Dead Cities and 
cut out the middleman. (SRM) 

Self-released, PO Box 31464, Seattle, WA 98103, sleepyeye- 
sofdeath.com 

Spymachine Sixteen - The Soap From This 
Soapbox Makes My Dirty Feet Slide, EP 

The lyrics to this four-song EP come in the shape of a 
hound dog’s head. It’s not origami, but it’s cute enough 
that it doesn’t matter. Kind of how people should ap¬ 
proach this music. This isn’t really dance music, not re¬ 
ally straight-up power pop, not punk, and not as politi¬ 
cal as it tries to make itself out to be, but it’s cute. May¬ 
be the sludgy recordings prod me to not take this more 
seriously than any other demo I’ve ever been handed 
by friends who think they’ve got something hot going 
on in the basement. But there is something here that 
silently instructs you not to turn it off. It’s probably the 
promise that someday this band will get into a real stu¬ 
dio and do these songs—with outstanding keyboard 
lines flying through almost every second-justice. Spy- 
machine Sixteen has a two-person dance squad, and 
Dave Hudson writes some melodies and lyrics that are 
keepers (for the most part). The trouble here lies in the 
production that makes this sound like hearing a mix of 


130 PUNK PLANET 






MUSIC 


Ninja High School and Tilly and the Wall through a thin 
apartment wall. (SM) 

Myspace.com/spymachinel6 

Sea, Like Lead, the - S/T, CDEP 

There’s not much here in terms of volume-three 
mostly instrumental songs and a pair of 40-odd 
second interludes-but this unassuming EP may be 
one of the better debuts you’ll find this year. The 
Pittsburgh-based trio, like June of 44 and A Minor 
Forest before it, knows the value of well-timed 
silences and their sometimes-glassy, sometimes- 
erupting brand of post-rock shows a surprisingly 
intuitive ability to navigate the deceptive passages 
between quiet and loud refrains. The fact that the 
record’s three core songs, all meandering guitars 
and somber bridges, were captured on audio tape 
for a demo should only heighten listeners’ excite¬ 
ment about what’s waiting around the corner. If 
this disc, with its Joe McCarthy samples and “Mem¬ 
ory is a map” declarations, is any indication, it’s not 
to be missed. (JV) 

Hope, P0 Box 71154, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, hoperecords.com 

Set Your Goals-Mutiny, CD 

Set Your Goals (perhaps named after the CIV debut?) 
is what I’d imagine Fall Out Boy to sound like: the di¬ 
luted generation of melodic hardcore contrived out 
of the Gorilla Biscuits to Lifetime to Saves the Day 
lineage. The sound’s popularity proves that it’s not 
going to stop anytime soon, and will definitely wear 
out its welcome. This Bay Area outfit play epic pop 
given a commercial punk appeal and a slight flavor 
of hardcore’s aggressive edge, clearly marketed 
towards the Fuse and Alterndtive Press crowd. And 
there are no qualms about it, as demonstrated in 
songs like “We Do it For the Money, Obviously!” While 
there’s a couple of sweet ‘80s-style breakdowns and 
mic pile-up moments, they’re always followed up 
by saccharine so sick, I’d rather swallow a million 
packets of Splenda and then vomit all over my Side 
by Side records. (VC) 

Eulogy, eulogyrecordings.com 

Superhopper - Party Killers, CDEP 

This is poppy rock with a lot of sugar, but not too 
much. The songs on Party Killers are charged and 
driving, but they aren’t snotty punk or power pop. 
In fact, Superhopper walks a fine between those ex¬ 
tremes. The music doesn’t veer too off course from a 
formula, but the formula isn’t bothersome. Vocalist 
Kermit Carter reminds me of Robert Pollard’s faux- 
British voice at times. Overall, this is feel-good guitar 
rock that doesn’t flake out on you. (EG) 

Guilt Ridden Pop, P0 Box 11894, St. Paul, MN 55111, guiltrid- 
denpop.com 

Tanakh - Ardent Fevers, CD 

The intentionally romanticized beauty of a song tied 
to a certain time of day is always an inherently self- 
aware thing, an endeavor to bring about memories 
of how that particular hour felt and an attempt to 
transport oneself back to it somehow. Such is the 
case on “5 a.m.,” the second track of Ardent Fevers, 
Tanakh’s fourth release for Alien8 Recordings. While 
the main voice behind the group is one Jesse Poe, 
the liner notes prove the existence of no less than 
a dozen co-conspirators on a host of instruments 


that help flesh out the space between every sound. 

It doesn’t matter so much which tracks in particular 
they play on-whether two or all eleven-as each 
track is such a quiet space, a combination of sounds 
that does not intend to draw attention to itself but 
rather to the composition as a whole. This is a col¬ 
lection of well-constructed, melodic folk-pop with 
orchestrated moments: understated, layered, and 
ethereal at times, meant for late evenings and 
reflection. A continual snare drum pitter-patters 
along without much pomp, followed by a slow, low 
slap bass; the lyrics aren’t stellar but simple, and 
they find their way among plucked acoustic gui¬ 
tars and horn ensembles that somehow manage 
to complement each other. “Still Trying to Find You 
Home” is a huge standout, floating along in the style 
of Leonard Cohen until it builds into an ultimately el¬ 
egant plateau. Although the majority of this album 
leaves Tanakh in the grey territory of pleasantries— 
balancing between earnest quietude and uninten¬ 
tional dullness. When they shine, they do so in such 
a lovely, fragile way. (SBM) 

Alien8 Recordings, No contact info provided 

Terrior Bute - Return to the Astro Castle, CD 

Keytars, Moogs, and three boys who look like they’re 
15 in matching white jumpsuits translates into one 
giant boner for this lady right here. Terrior Bute plays 
super upbeat, energetic, party-friendly, new-wave 
punk music. Sassy laser beam noises, catchy drum¬ 
beat lines, and lyrics that really don’t make much 
sense (but make mention of quality things such as 
chatting online, dancing, and “pressing buttons in a 
room full of buttons”) is what can be expected from 
Return to the Astro Castle. This saucy threesome did 
an awesome job on their first release with Vicious 
Pop Records, and should continue to do great things 
in the future. Like play a show at my house. (JB) 

Vicious Pop, 4023 N. Bartlett Ave. Shorewood, Wl 53211, vicious- 
poprecords.com 

Thee More Shallows - Monkey Vs. Shark, CDEP 

Here unearthed noises, a fragile voice, and gracefully 
chaotic music are woven into something so organic 
and satisfying you’ll wonder how your ears have yet 
to hear these sounds blended together before. This 
EP combines pieces-a record skip, violin scrawl, 
robotic chatter-and live-band accompaniment to 
craft a meaningful, personal muddle; bagpipe blips 
take me to the Highlands, intimate Ben Gibbard-like 
vocals drive me on a nighttime car ride home, and 
clanks of pots plunk me in a collapsing kitchenette. 
It’s confusing and lovely stuff. With this set of seven 
songs, Thee More Shallows have made music out of 
the oxymoronic: delicate vigor, complicated ease, a 
disturbingly impassive rendition of an Al Green clas¬ 
sic (“I Can’t Get Next to You”). This very good EP, in¬ 
cluding a remix by Odd Nodsam and Why?, sounds 
even better after subsequent listens expose new 
snippets and the sweeping, underlying melodies 
take off. (KG) 

Turn, P.0. Box 784, Santa Clara, CA 95052, tumrecords.com 

Thee Moths-Nature, CD 

This spare, bleak record defines itself not through 
somber acoustic ruminations or Alex Botten’s 
breathy whisper of a voice, but in how those ele¬ 
ments are cut up and filtered through Botten’s 



XiuXiu-The Air Force, CD 

Are you kidding me? Another Xiu Xiu record? Jamie Stewart has to be one 
of the most hated musicians, because he spits out new records left and 
right and every one is a success. Xiu Xiu is like some horrible drug. With 
each record, I vow to give them up, telling myself I’m tired of their pseudo- 
pretentious depression. Sometimes, I even become clean for months, not 
listening to a quivered note that Stewart sings-but then, a new form of Xiu 
Xiu comes out. This time the new form is The Air Force, and I don’t hesitate 
to say that I think it may very well be the best Xiu Xiu record to date. It’s definitely the most listenable, from 
the first notes of the piano on “Buzz Saw” to the monologue and double bass of “Wig Master” (which actually 
is overdoing it on the pretentious scale a little bit). Again, Stewart doesn’t stray from his sexually frustrated, 
gravely depressing nightmarish anthems that he so enjoys writing. On The Air Force, Jamie strikes gold with 
three songs in particular. “Bishop, CA” starts with a very mellow synth line and erupts into a wall of beautiful 
noise that abruptly ends, leading into my favorite part on the record. This 20-second interlude features Jamie 
and Caralee singing “walla walla walla walla walla hey” over and over-almost too beautiful for a Xiu Xiu 
track. “The Pineapple vs. the Watermelon” and “The Fox & the Rabbit” are two standout tracks as well, with 
subdued vocals and a more almost “commercially-friendly” take on Xiu Xiu. Well... as commercially friendly 
as songs about suicide with Jamie Stewart singing can be. I don’t recall Caralee singing as much on the other 
records, and the combination of their voices provides an added touch of beauty. The Air Force is not a record 
to put on when you’re trying to sleep, trying to have a conversation, or trying to work. It steals your focus, 
and I’m sure if you’re crying, the record will make you cry harder. Once again, Xiu Xiu has won my approval, 
proving yet again that I can’t stay clean of their wonderful despair. (MB) 

5 Rue Christine, P0 Box 1190, Olympia, WA 98501,5rc.com 


Various Artists - Rogue’s Gallery, CD 

I’m sure a pirate’s life is not for me, and until recently, I didn’t think their music 
(or the music of seafaring people in general) would be either. Rogue’s Gallery 
is a two-disc collection of “pirate ballads, sea songs, and chanteys” meant as 
a tie-in for the new Pirates of the Caribbean flick. Assembled by Pirates di¬ 
rector Gore Verbinski and the still-pretty Johnny Depp, the anthology brings 
together a host of unlikely musicians to give their takes on maritime classics. 
And oftentimes it’s the artists you wouldn’t associate with swashbuckling who provide the most interesting 
renditions: Roxy Music’s Bryan Ferry lays out a haunting soundscape with “The Cruel Captain’s Ship,” rife with 
dark piano melodies, scraping violin, and Ferry’s perfectly rusty pipes. Loudon Wainwright Ill’s bittersweet 
“Turkish Revelry” recounts a cabin boy’s attempts at being a murderous pirate; his son Rufus appears on 
the comp as well in a wistful duet with Kate McGarrigle. The less traditional versions, like Joseph Arthur’s 
creepshow “Coast of High Barbary,” Robin Holcomb’s schizoid jazz interpretation of “Dead Horse,” and Jarvis 
Cocker’s feedback-drenched barn burner, "A Drop of Nelson’s Blood,” break up the sometimes monotonous 
collection. My favorite moments of Rogue’s Gallery come on disc two, in the form of White Magic’s drifting 
drone tune “Long Time Ago,” Akron/Family’s gentle, yet scornful ballad “One Spring Morning,” and old Lou 
Reed’s water-logged street-poet take on “Leave Her Johnny.” There are contributions by Bono and Sting, 
Nick Cave and Lucinda Williams, Van Dyke Parks and Ed Harcourt as well, though most are not as noteworthy 
as the ones described above. Though this collection would have had greater impact as a single disc, Rogue’s 
Gallery is a must for fans of folk music or the styles played by most of the musicians present. These classic 
tunes laid the groundwork for a significant portion of the folk music we’ve come to love. And to hear them 
given faithful, modern treatment is a tribute to their timelessness. (SRM) 


necticut-are stuffed with ulterior motives and en¬ 
tendres, the non-bashful insinuations of actions re¬ 
placing words and actions not meshing with words. 
In most cases, lead singer Brad Amorosino seems 
to suggest that each interaction with another is 
an experiment or in an experimental stage, being 
acted upon by someone unseen. There’s even a song 
entitled “Lab Rat,”-a look at dysfunction in a new 
way. The music is mostly of the come-lately variety, 
but years behind emo rock ‘n’ roll that still works in 
the right ways to move these night tremors along 
enough that they’ll never be confused for sweet 
nothings. (SM) 

Self-released, listentotitles.com 


Anti, 2798 Sunset Blvd. los Angeles, CA 90026, anti.com 


prominently featured laptop. A painted homage to 
the machine, one’s led to believe, is even featured on 
the cover. The result is hit or miss and, sadly, more 
often the latter. Tracks like “Shallow Blue Ocean” or 
“Do Not Be Ashamed,” for all their dead space or 
forced found sounds, are genuinely beautiful. But do 
we really need to find them after wandering through 
a landscape so cluttered with digital glitches and 
stitch-weary segues that one must wonder if their 
CD player’s on the fritz? (JV) 

Banazan, PO Box 231Z, Orange, CA 92859, banazan.com 

Titles-S/T, CD 

Many of the stories on the eponymous debut re- 
cord-by this band from inconspicuous little Con¬ 



PUNK PLANET 131 







REVIEWER SPOTLIGHTS 


Reviewer spotlight: Sean Moeller (SM) 

Dr. Frank, Show Business is My Life. Writing “Catcher in the Rye”-ish literature for the young adult set is how 
Dr. Frank now makes his living, but this solo effort proves that if there’s a schizophrenic woman to be found 
or a deluded tale of wacky, romantic infatuation to be told, it’s the good doctor who will do it, not you good 
sir (or madam). For all of his prolificacy, by way of the two-decade spanning Mr. T Experience (one of the best 
band names to give absolutely no insight into what the music might sound like), Show Business is My Life 
was another drop in the bucket-and by that I don’t mean it was a waste. He’s got a way of writing about the 
crazies that halfway explains why love is the ultimate motherfucker. It’s because when it finds you, no one’s 
acting rationally and when it turns out that one of those affected happens to really be loco, that’s when it 
gets interesting. It’s what every movie premise about love banks on-that lunacy that causes people to dive 
in headfirst-and Dr. Frank writes about this better than anyone when he sings, “She turned out to be crazy / 
I turned out to be screwed.” This album serves as a reminder that we’re the sane ones. 

Current occupations: M. Ward, Post-Wdr, Annuals, Be He Me; Andrew WK, The Wolt, TV on the Radio, Return 
to Cookie Mountain ; Christine Fellows, Paper Anniversary. 

Reviewer Spotlight - Sarah Moody (SBM) 

Godspeed You! Black Emperor, F# A# [infinity]. Aside from the limited, 33-edition tape that came out in ‘94 
(anyone have a copy?), this is the album that started it all-packaged with the now familiar meticulous liner notes 
courtesy of Efrim, full of drawings and articulate schematics, blurry photos, and short manifestos. Though the 
number of tracks here is small (three total), each composition is over 16 minutes long and performed by no fewer 
than nine musicians. F# A# [infinity] is both political and personal without being preachy, and offers hope amid 
post-everything emptiness (and this was in ‘98!). The shouted street recording of “East Hastings” melds into an 
eerie, leisurely repeating guitar line that slowly builds, repeats, and modifies itself slightly as it creeps along each 
time until suddenly the composition is overtaken by an explosive barrage of churning violins. “Dead Flag Blues” 
is a triumph in four parts, opening the album with a bleak monologue that leads into a train, harmonics, and a 
strangely calm outro. Infinity is both sinister and celebratory throughout as it heaves and pulls back, twisting 
beneath the echoes in the most devious ways. The trains, the darkness, the shifts in melody and mood, the every¬ 
thing—it’s all here. I can recall blasting it while lying on the floor at 3 a.m., stuck on repeat and finally getting it. This 
album has proven to be a continual epiphany ever since and is absolutely essential for so many reasons. 

They watered down / the poison in this town: Malachi (onstant, Pride ; Mum, Finally We Are No One; Hood, 
Cold House; Loscil, Plume; lots of Anticon & too many old mix (Ds. 

Reviewer Spotlight: Scott Morrow (SJM) 

Gravediggaz, 6 Feet Deep. Horrorcore shall never die! Wait... what? I guess it died a long time ago. Well, I do 
know this much: Gravediggaz’ 6 Feet Deep was its finest hour (er, 50 minutes). Mixing head-banging beats 
with horror-inspired lyrics, RZA and Prince Paul helped produce the group’s only first-rate album. The mate¬ 
rial wasn’t self-important, and better still, it was funny. See the “360 Questions (to Ask a Gravedigga)” skit 
for proof: “Yo, RZA. How many bites did it take you to chew your fuckin’ arm off?” The album is a concoction 
of moody samples, bass hits, and personality, but with enough absurdity to prevent the formula from going 
stale. Its finest cut, “1-800-Suicide,” may not have charted as well as the courtroom tale “Diary of a Mad¬ 
man,” but it brought the figurative lumber for gory imagery: “The first was convinced / stuck a water hose 
in his mouth at full blast so his head can explode / Second one said, ‘Hmm, that’s good, but I can top it.’ / Put 
an axe up to his head and then he chopped it.” That’s gold, Jerry! It’s too bad that Prince Paul and RZA bailed 
on this whole horror thing. Think of the potential for zombie movie soundtracks! 

Ridin’ the caboose to hell—bzzzt!—touch the third rail: Estradasphere, Palace of Mirrors; London Sinfoniet- 
ta, Warp Works & Twentieth Century Masters; The Mars Volta, Amputechture; Red Sparowes, Every Red Heart 
Shines Toward the Red Sun; Venetian Snares, Cavalcade of Glee and Dadaist Happy Hardcore Pom Poms. 

Reviewer Spotlight: Brian Moss (BM) 

Samiam, Billy. Spanning the length of over a decade and a half, Samiam formed in the Bay Area during 
the regions late-’80s underground glory days, played contributor and victim to the major label pop-punk 
explosion of the mid-’90s, and stuck around well after the feeding frenzy had subsided. Partially adhering 
to the West (oast board sports-punk sound, the quartet introduced elements of raw aggression, poetic 
critique, and lengthy dynamic complexity, assembling a sound that, at the time, was relatively unheard of. 
Over the years, Samiam’s lineup, often incestuous to their native scene, came and went through a revolving 
door. As the cast shifted, so did their music: what began as something gritty and inventive turned to more 
polished and tamed pop foundations (most likely attributable to the band’s short lived contract with Atlantic 
Records and/or hopes of broadening their fan base). Finally, this year, after a lengthy release hiatus, Samian 
returned to some extent-with refined and expanded abilities—to punk rooting. Billy, released in 1992 on 
New Red Archives (NRA), is one of Samiam’s finest albums as their pop tendencies, raucous animosity, and 
genre defying splices are all equally present. 

Grade-A cuts: Supersystem, Always Never Again; Tornavalanche, No Money No Problems; Mississippi John 
Hurt, Avalon Blues; The Velvet Teen, Cum Laude!; Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood, You Go Go Girl. 

Reviewer’s Spotlight: Bart Niedziaikowski (BN) 

(ardigans, the, Gran Turismo. So I’m looking through some of my (Ds last night to write about in this section, and 


I come across the (ardigans’ Gran Turismo. As soon as I pick it up my mind fills up with doubt: “Do I really want to 
write about this in my spotlight?” Fuck it, we’ve all got guilty pleasures! Gran Turismo was an interesting record 
in that it was the first album since the huge success the sugary-pop “Lovefool” brought the band. Realizing 
the danger of being forever tied to the bubblegum-pop sound, the (ardigans put together a dark, moody, and 
experimental title. Delving into electronica, distortion, and sorrowful crooning, the band shied away from the 
pop sound that accounted for their biggest hit to date, and embraced, of all things, trip hop. The end result is in¬ 
deed trippy, with the drums, guitars, and keyboards driving the effectively simple melodies, and Nina Persson’s 
sleepy vocals lulling you before sudden bursts of distortion and electronic effects jar your senses. This proves 
especially effective on “Do You Believe,” during which a resigned Persson softly declares “Do you really think 
that love is gonna save the world? / Well, I don’t think so,” effectively distancing herself from the sunny-warm 
songs she was so used to writing. It’s a theme that continues through the record, including my personal favorites 
“Paralyzed” and “Erase/Rewind,” and makes Gran Turismo such a pleasure, guilty or not. 

Now Playing: Rancid, Let's Go; V/A, Anti-Disco League; Swingin’ Utters, The Streets of San Francisco; Wlo- 
chaty, BuntIMilosc. 

Reviewer Spotlight: Rex Reason (RR) 

Les Rallizes Denudes, Le 12 Mars 1911 a Tachikawa. This sonic oddity may be one of the most rewarding al¬ 
bums I’ve ever heard. The band’s history is unclear at best, but apparently they started as a sort of Exploding 
Plastic Inevitable-era Velvet Underground-inspired band in the mid/late ‘60s in Japan, the French sounding 
name only further confusing the issue. If nothing else, Les Rallizes Denudes certainly learned the expressive 
power and potential of feedback from the Velvets. During the best moments of this two disc live set, the 
drums and bass pound in mind numbingly simplistic rhythmic patterns as waves of the most piercing and 
melodic guitar feedback wash over your ears and change your body chemistry. The vocals are a bit loud in 
the mix but also drenched in enough reverb to add to the psychedelic and otherworldly vibe of the music. 
Six of the seven tracks are over 10 minutes long, so the point is to create texture with sound and paint with 
noise rather than to fashion concise ditties. With that in mind, either take my pretentious claptrap as a stern 
warning or a gushing recommendation. 

Five ways to separate the wheat from the chaff: The Melvins, (a) Senile Animal; NoMeansNo, All Roads Lead to 
Ausfahrt, The Pogues, Rhino reissues of the first five albums: Totimoshi, Ladron; Sunn o))) and Boris, Altar. 

Reviewer Spotlight: Matthew Siblo (MS) 

Digger, Powerbait. If Freud were alive today, I’m almost positive he’d want to re-tool the framework of his 
psychoanalytic theory from early childhood to grades nine through 12. (oming from the all-boys (atholic 
school I did, I’m sure that my prognosis wouldn’t be all that bright, but surely those formative years have 
more applicability to my life than potty training. Anyway, in spite of the feelings of alienation and psychosis 
one accrues during adolescence, certain things kept us going. For me, they were getting nachos and Slur¬ 
pees on Wednesdays, egg and cheese sandwiches on the train in the morning, and, of course, Pennsylvania 
Dutch-flavored pop punk. At the time, bands like Plow United, Weston, and Digger heavily resonated within 
my small circle of friends. But whereas Plow was a bit more serious and Weston earnest, Digger’s Powerbait 
was pure goofball bliss. Asshole teachers? Sure. Awkward interactions with pretty girls from superior social 
standing? You bet. The gut-wrenching emotion involved in getting a stupid haircut and wanting that beanie 
you left at your ex-lovers’ family home? We’ve all been there. Yet, none of this compared to the gut busting 
emotion of “Ducky’s (urse," a bittersweet ballad about Jon (ryer’s longing desire for his pink-dad, red¬ 
headed soul mate. Even while writing about it, I can smell the gym socks. Looking back, I don’t know whether 
I should thank Digger for saving me or scold them for eternally stunting my emotional growth. Either way, 
Freud would be shaking his head in disapproval. 

It’s not what It looks like: Built to Spill, Keep it Like a Secret; Annuals, Be He Me; Jens Lekman, Oh, You’re So 
Silent Jens; The Olivia Tremor (ontrol, Dawn at Cubist Castle; Maritime, We, the Vehicles. 

Reviewer spotlight: Mike Vinikour (MXV) 

Damned, the, Grimly Fiendish. Stop me if you’ve heard this before... Back when I was an angry skate¬ 
boarding teenager consuming all things punk rock, one of the earliest bands I heard and really took a 
liking to was the Damned. In fact, to this day, they remain of my most favorite punk rock bands ever, and 
I have more Damned records in the Punk Vault than any other artist by a huge margin! At the time, this 
particular single was released the band had just signed to M(A and they had altered their sound a bit. It 
wasn’t that drastic of a change, and it followed the progression the band showed on the previous two 
albums, but this one was a little more accessible than even those were: a little more goth and a little 
more ‘80s sounding. This was their first single (and mine came on white vinyl) from the forthcoming 
Phantasmagoria album, and as catchy as the A-side was, the flipside, “Edward the Bear,” was the real 
standout on this single. I played this record for everyone I came in contact with, including the girl I had 
the biggest crush on in my entire life. That song was the only thing I ever played her from my record 
collection that she really liked (and in fact I think I ended up making a tape of it for her). Sadly, it wasn’t 
enough to get her to date me! 

If I’m stuck driving, you’re stuck hearing: Harkonen, Shake Harder Boy; (url Up and Die, everything; Bad 
Brains, ROIR Sessions; PiL, Metal Box; Big Black, Songs About Fucking. 




MUSIC 


Viva La Foxx -1 Knew it Wasn’t Love, But..., CD 

In every Bond movie, there’s a scene where they in¬ 
troduce the seductress where the camera lingers on 
her eyes. And it never fails to make me lose my shit. 
There’s more than simply a pair of beautiful eyes, 
but an overwhelmingly intense sexuality bursting 
out from behind those retinas. A drinking buddy 
of mine endearingly calls it “The Fuck-Me Gaze.” In 
public, it’s an undeniable tractor beam-a reckless 
confidence fueled by sex and alcohol. It’s certainly 
not playful or graceful, but few deny its carnal al¬ 
lure. This Cincinnati four-piece captures this sleazy 
haze beautifully. The songs are lo-fi, art-damaged, 
and mostly inaccessible, but they remain compel¬ 
ling. Viva La Foxx’s blues-driven direction gives 
the razor’s edge a sultry appeal, and the disc’s tight 
performance shows that their appeal isn’t a clumsy 
swagger. The guitar doesn’t drunkenly meander, 
but spastically careens to punctuate with calcu¬ 
lated noise. The rhythm section is solid, successfully 
leading the band through well-timed dynamics. 
Both singers add to the prickly cacophony, leaping 
between a suggestive cooing to helpless yelping. 
It’s a dangerous formula that can lead to very bad 
decisions (like trading STDs), but their combination 
teeters towards relishing debauchery instead of re¬ 
grettable disaster. (VC) 

Shake It, shakeitrecords.com, lafoxxmusic.com 

Wiggins, the - Greatest Apes, CDEP 

Part electro-surf punk from outer space, part David 
Lynch outtake, and part-home brewed garage opi¬ 
ate, I’m not exactly sure what the Wiggins are, but 


whatever it is, it’s fuckin’ rad. Think the redefini¬ 
tion of lo-fi, Lou Reed in a garage disposal, Johnny 
Thunders’ vampire alter-ego, leper underwear 
parties, and successful-noir amateur snake charm¬ 
ing. Rumor has it there’s just one local Houstoner 
behind all this madness, which makes the effort 
even more impressive. This is the stuff of magic 
that gluttonous hipster vultures and college radio 
DJs will be getting all weak in the knees about once 
Pitchfork clocks in a 8.372, so do yourself a favor 
and get it while it’s fresh. (BM) 

Girl Gang, swarmofangels.com/girlgang.html, geocities.com/ 
thewigginsrox 

V/A - Backstreets of American Oi Volume 2 
-Ten Years Later, 2xCD 

It has been quite a while since a compilation has 
captivated me the way that this second volume in 
the Backstreets of American Oi did. With so many 
label samplers and compilations featuring only 
previously released materials floating around out 
there, I have largely turned a blind eye to most re¬ 
cently released comps. What Street Anthem Records 
did differently for this series is search high and low 
for contributions from bands you will instantly rec¬ 
ognize, as well as some that you will be hearing for 
the very first time. That alone makes this 53-track 
double CD a good investment. Even more of a reason 
to pick this up is the quality of the material selected. 
In fact, I’ve listened through the discs twice and 
haven’t been tempted to hit skip once. My personal 
favorites are the contributions courtesy of the Bruis¬ 
ers, Suburban Lockdown, Broken Heroes, Patriot, 


Common Voice, and Niblick Henbane. Tastes vary, 
but anyone with even the slightest interest in street 
and oi punk will find something to their liking here, 
and isn’t that the point behind a compilation in the 
first place? (BN) 

Street Anthem, streetanthemrecords.com 

V/A-Live at KEXPVol. 2, CD 

KEXP is and should be viewed as a shining beacon 
of hope for all of independent radio and what it is 
capable of. Located in Seattle, they’ve been around 
since the ‘70s but only recently started releasing live, 
in-studio compilations-this is the second attempt, 
and all proceeds from sales directly benefit both the 
station and KEXP.org. Given that these tracks were 
recorded (as the title implies) live at KEXP, both the 
sound quality and performances themselves are 
highly variable. Some acts shine in this format while 
others fall flat on their ass; such is the shifty nature 
of the in-studio performance. This comp features the 
usual Northwest acts (the Decemberists, Sleater- 
Kinney), in addition to a few newer ones that have 
already achieved a hefty amount of critical drool this 
past year (Editors, Tapes ‘n’ Tapes), with each group 
performing the single from their latest album. Most 
of the choices are predictable, higher-profile inde¬ 
pendent acts, which is a little strange given the di¬ 
versity of KEXP’s usual programming. Airing every¬ 
thing from world music to ambient to blues to the 
long-running weekend punk show Sonic Reducer, it 
seems there could’ve been plenty of room for many 
lesser-known acts to share in the spotlight. If you 
can get past the creepy, sugarcoated cover, there 


are nonetheless some impressive performances to 
be found here-but isn’t the whole point of being 
independent that you don’t have to try to please 
everyone? (SBM) 

KEXP, 113 Dexter Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109, kexp.org 

V/A-Release the Bats, CD 

There’s no fear that a label like Three One G would 
thoughtfully take on the Birthday Party in tribute. 
Such endeavors fail when bands from the same 
genre attempt to ape the band that heavily influ¬ 
enced said genre. Straight homage requires a sense 
of creative originality, especially if you want to be 
a good com band. So, who else to take on one of 
punk’s darkest and most inaccessible bands? Three 
One G’s roster is diverse enough for that variety, but 
all of their bands do share a common interest for the 
macabre. I’m honestly surprised the press sheet for 
this release wasn’t black ink silkscreened on black 
paper and smeared with pig blood. Okay... not sur¬ 
prised, but disappointed. Anyways, while more ap¬ 
propriate then their Queen tribute, we’re all still wait¬ 
ing for the Joy Division one. This heavy hitter-filled 
tribute includes: the Plot to Blow up the Eiffel Tower, 
Das Oath, T Cells, Cattle Decapitation, Year Future, 
Ssion, Ex Models, Les Georges Leningrad, Rah Bras, 
Melt Banana, Chinese Stars, Celebration, Kill Me To¬ 
morrow, Get Hustle, Numbers, Error, Daughters, and 
Some Girls. Of course, as with all tribute albums, the 
ones that stray from mimicry offer the most compel¬ 
ling takes (Cattle Dcapitation and Melt Banana stand 
out for me). (VC) 

Three One G, PO Box 178Z6Z, San Diego, CA 92177, threeoneg.com 


REVIEWS APPEARING ONLINE 

at punkplanet.com/reviews 


2UP- Teenage Mondo Trash, CD 

Arpe, GT - Doused Fires #2, CD-R 

BA Baracus - S/T, CD 

Bang! Bang! -Decked Out, CD 

Blue Dot, the - Diamond Lite, CD 

Botch - Unifying Themes Redux, CD 

Boys on Trial - Guantanamo Boy, CD 

Brass Castle -S/T, CD 

Bullys, the -BQE Overdrive, CD 

Bushmen, the - War and Soda, CD 

Chrash - Audio Feng Shui CD 

Chrome Pistola - Information War, CD 

DK Limb - Defy Define Definition CD 

Denver in Dallas - 2 Songs, CD 

Eyes Averted - Paralyzing Passion and Notion, CDEP 

Fake Fiction - Raw Ying, CD 

Fight Amputation/Exosus - Split, CD 

Fire Don’t Care - Be What You Are, CD 

Frontside Five - Fall out of Line, CD 

Gamenight - Simple Starts in the Mind, CD 

Glory of This - The Lover, the Liar, the Ruse, CD 

Holford, Casey - All Young and Beautiful, CD 

Hoyston, Jenny/William Whitmore - Hallways of Always, CDEP 

Hudson Falcons - Singles Collection 1997 - 2002, CD 

Hush Hush Revolution - Criminal Class USA is Hush Hush Revolution, CD 


Hyvonen, Frida - Until Death Comes, CD 

Instrumental Quarter - Traffic Jam, CD 

Jab Mica Och El - ABC Hej I’m Cola, CD 

Jena/Berlin - Passion Waits as the Program Keeps Going, CD 

Jolenes, the -Get it to Go, CD 

Jolts, the -Jinx, CDEP 

Kultur Shock - We Came to Take Your Jobs Away, CD 

La Guillotine - Throat, CD 

La Snacks - Brown, Orange, Black and Gray, CD 

Latterman- We are Still Alive, CD 

Leaving the Fold -S/T, CDEP 

Machine Gun TV, the -Go, CDEP 

Mad Ripple, the - Sink and/or Swim, CD 

Mirah - Joyride: Remixes CD 

Media Dropout - Muddled, CD 

Misguided, the - Home Town Zeros, CD 

Model Citizen - Save it for the Camp Fire, CD 

Mouth of the Architect - The Ties That Blind, CD 

Much the Same -Survive, CD 

Mutts, the -I Us We You, CD 

Neosonic - Fast Forward, CDEP 

New Mexican Revolution, the - Theories of Sun & Rain, CDEP 

Nire - My Father’s Record Player, CD 

Noxagt - S/T, CD 

Overdogs, the - Pawnshop Masterpiece, CD 


Panda & Angel -S/T, CDEP 
Plains, the - The Boy in the Mansuit, CD 
Pseudo Existors - Stamp Out Normality, CD 
Psychedelic Horseshit - Who Let the Dogs Out?, 7” 

Rory - We’re up to no Good, We’re up to no Good, CD 
Roy Owens Jr, the - Good Times CD 
Sabertooth Tiger - Extinction is Inevitable, CD 
Sex Robots -S/T, CD 
Sexy! - Boma Ye!, CD 

Skygreen Leopards, the - Disciples of California, CD 

Sobriety Starts Tomorrow - In the Key of Whiskey, CD 

Something Fierce - Come for the Bastards, CD 

System and Station - Here is Now, CD 

Terror - Always the Hard Way, CD 

To Hell and Back -S/T, CD 

Toxic Narcotic - 21st Century Discography, CD 

Traindodge - Wolves, CD 

Twentyfour Hour Hell - Introducing My Rock ‘n’ Roll, CD 

Two Ton Boa -Parasiticide, CD 

Unlucky Atlas -S/T, CDEP 

Vopat - Tell Them we are Dead, CD 

Wizardzz - Hidden City of Taurmond 

Your Eyes My Dreams - Weapons are Useless, CD 

Zooparty - S/T, CD 

V/A -Project Bicycle, CD 








OOKS 


Serious Adverse Events: An Uncensored History of AIDS 
Celia Farber 

In 1988, SPIN magazine published Celia Farber’s interview 
with controversial AIDS scientist, Peter Duesberg, in which 
he famously challenged the link between HIV and AIDS. The 
interview was both the end and the beginning of Farber’s 
career. For giving voice to Duesberg’s claims, the National In¬ 
stitutes of Health denied her access to their scientists, and the 
mainstream scientific establishment gave her the collective 
cold shoulder. Cut off from conventional sources, Farber be¬ 
gan to write about people who questioned the dominant nar¬ 
rative surrounding AIDS. Those voices fill the pages of her new book, Serious Adverse Events: 
An Uncensored History of AIDS. Farber’s critics argue that her work is dangerously misleading. 
She presents AIDS as a multifactoral syndrome that may or may not be directly caused by HIV, 
which has angered prominent scientists and AIDS activists who believe that her writing endan¬ 
gers public AIDS education. This year, a group called the Treatment Action Campaign posted a 
37-page article citing over 50 errors in Farber’s reporting and labeled her an “AIDS denialist.” 
On the other hand, Farber has credentials. She’s been writing about AIDS for twenty years, has 
published articles in Harper’s, Esquire, and Salon, and her dissident sources include a Nobel 
laureate, the founding editor of the medical journal AIDS Research, and the former Director of 
OPCRO (the government-run Office for Policy in Clinical Research Operations). Serious Adverse 
Events is a page-turner, filled with intense personalities battling over life and death. Farber is 
angry with the dominant AIDS establishment, and her inflammatory style might be her stron¬ 
gest rebellion against what she considers the mainstream conspiracy to suppress truths about 
AIDS. Farber avoids the euphemisms of “objective” journalism, bordering on caricature in her 
descriptions of Robert Gallo, the controversial co-discoverer of HIV. Her dramatic, readable style 
is reactionary in the best sense of the word. When scientific reports and mainstream journal¬ 
ism present AIDS research as tried and true fact, it’s difficult for a layperson to doubt what they 
read. But Farber’s in-your-face bias leaves room for the reader to draw their own conclusions 
about the arguments at stake. And some of the questions Farber raises deserve consideration. 
The book’s most compelling points aren’t scientific. They’re social. Farber looks at the panic 
that surrounded AIDS in the early 1980s and questions whether scientific conclusions made in 
the pressure-cooker of AIDS paranoia shouldn’t be revisited. She examines the motives behind 
administering toxic drugs to AIDS patients without understanding how they work or the poten¬ 
tially fatal consequences. And she challenges the current labeling of AIDS as an African disease, 
spread by alleged promiscuity and primitive practices in the Third World. Despite its flaws, 
Serious Adverse Events is an important chapter in the ongoing chronicling of AIDS. It opens up 
the debate and gives shape to some of the nebulous questions surrounding the disease. After 
twenty years of research, we still don’t know that much about AIDS. Serious Adverse Events 
gives weight to that uncertainty and leaves you wondering if what we don’t know can hurt us 
more than we think. -Sarah Coffey 

Melville House Publishing 


The Longest Pregnancy 
Melissa Fraterrigo 

I want to live in Melissa Fraterrigo’s fictional world. 
Well, sorta. The characters she’s populated in the 
mostly-Midwestern based stories of The Longest 
Pregnancy might fall asleep on any given night to 
find they have the power to inhabit another person’s 
body, or wake up in the morning and discover they’ve 
become attached at the torso to their partner. But 
the curiosities, like the family who operate and star 
in a water show swimming with sharks or the giant 
couple (literally, giants) who move in next door, 
aren’t the focus of the stories. Instead of fully ex¬ 
ploring the book’s odd features, and explaining how 
a typical American family starts a shark swimming 
extravaganza or why a couple of giants choose to 
settle down in the Ohio Valley, Fraterrigo uses them 
as devices to develop and even test the relationships 
between couples, friends, parents and their children. 
After waking up and discovering a four-inch stretch 
of shared skin on their abdomens, the newlyweds 
in The Attached Couple have to fulfill their vows by 
figuring out how to survive together “until death do 
us part.” The book’s weak point comes in a pair of 
extremely short stories, Bejeweled and The Memory 
Woman. Both begin with intriguing premises, but are 
ended abruptly after too few pages. The adulterous 
narrator in Bejeweled hits the jackpot when an ol¬ 
ive green easy chair starts producing diamonds and 
pearls from within its seat cushion. A group of chil¬ 
dren visit The Memory Woman to help them navigate 
their way through the small seaside town they live 
in, asking questions about the inner thoughts of ani¬ 
mals and how a pair of girls drowned. The landscape 
in the latter story is rich and fascinating, worthy of 
a dozen more pages of creation. Throughout the 
collection, Fraterrigo shows a deep understanding 
and empathy with the human condition, even when 
we’re faced with extraordinary circumstances. After 
all, what would you do if a giant moved in next door 
and wanted to swap spouses? -Nancy Rohlen 
Swallow’s Tale Press 

We Don’t Need Another Wave: Dispatches from 
the Next Generation of Feminists 
various authors, edited by Melody Berger 

Editor and founder of The E-word zine Melody Berger 
compiled this collection of essays to critique the ways 
that contemporary feminism is discussed in the me¬ 
dia. “We don’t need another wave,” she writes in her 
introduction. “We need a movement.” The foreword 
is by Bitch Magazine editor and founder Lisa Jervis, 
who says that the “wave” terminology has outlived 
its usefulness and is often used by the mainstream 
press to position second and third wavers as “anti” 


one another, (ie, second wavers reject humor and 
sex; third wavers aren’t politically active). Jervis’s 
take is that the idea of a simplistic generational di¬ 
vide serves no one, and that we should keep discuss¬ 
ing the main point-gender justice-while retaining 
myriad voices and opposing perspectives that move 
in the same direction: forward. Topically, the essays 
run an impressive gamut-covering everything from 
Latina reproductive rights activists, a critique of the 
gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender wedding industry, 
the organization of sex worker rights, one woman’s 
reclamation of sexuality after abuse, and the inher¬ 
ent issues of being one-half of an interracial lesbian 
couple. Contributor Jessica Valenti runs a blog called 
Feministing.com and writes with intelligent passion 
about the image problem of the word “feminist” and 
why women shouldn’t shrink from it, in her piece, 
“You’re a Feminist. Deal.” Another stirring essay is by 
Kat Marie Yoas, who grew up in a trailer park, and later 
ended up in academia. Yoas grapples eloquently with 
the complexities of living simultaneously in two dis¬ 
parate worlds, including identity-confusion, class-an¬ 
ger, and insulting assumptions made and spoken by 
her colleagues. In "Steam Room Revelations,” writer, 
teacher, and filmmaker Courtney Martin tells of com¬ 
ing to term with body issues and self-consciousness 
via a raucous group of older women who frequent the 
steam room at her local YMCA. What’s thrilling about 
the collection is how firmly grounded in activism the 
contributors are. The diverse bylines are made up of 
educators, artists, poets, filmmakers, founders of 
non-profits, students and performers, all who live 
and breathe the issues they’re writing about. I’d nit- 
pick that several of the confessional poems embed¬ 
ded in the collection don’t serve it well, but mostly this 
is a gaggle of brash, fun, enlightening, fearless, and 
on-point essays by people working in the trenches of 
contemporary feminist issues, and for that it’s well 
worth your lunch money. -Gretchen Kalwinski 
Seal Press 

Howard Who? 

Howard Waldrup 

For some reason science fiction always seems to 
get linked with adolescents who know more about 
Chewbacca’s home world than dating, and grown 
ups who think sleeping on Space: 1999 sheets is a 
sign of youthful flair. It’s these kinds of associations 
that either scare readers off outright or allow them to 
admit to reading it only as a self-deprecating guilty 
pleasure. What a shame. Because if they ever both¬ 
ered to get past the labels and the stereotyping flung 
around by the literati, they might dig deep enough 
into the canon and see for themselves that writers 






A bout our reviews: We review independently published books. We do it for the love of reading them and for the love of writing about them. We don’t care whether or not you buy them based on our reviews, but we will make every effort to give 
you what information we can about the books we review that are available for sale. Because of the amount of time it takes to read and really think about a book in order to write a review of a few hundred words, we are very selective about 
the books we review. We try to represent a variety of topics, genres, and publishing houses in all of our review sections. Typically we recieve about 5x as many books as we review. Sorry! 

Edited by Javier Ramirez 


like Howard Waldrop write sci-fi that not only ignores 
the hyperspace and ray gun trappings of the genre, 
but also says some fascinating and funny things. 
Homd Who?, a re-issue from 1986, contains an en¬ 
thusiastically oddball mix of stories without a single 
spaceship, far off planet, or robot (unless you count 
a trio of animatronic Disney characters inadvertently 
sprung to life far, far into the future). No, what Wal¬ 
drop really seems to enjoy working with are the 
“what-ifs” of our past and in our future. He likes to 
undo the facts, flaunt history, and show us through 
a door that just a second ago we’d have sworn was a 
window. This is fiction where Bronco Billy and Hitler 
hunt the same vampire, where sumo wrestlers use 
their minds to heft opponents out of the ring, and 
where the dodo bird gets an extension on its lifes¬ 
pan. It’s not all whimsy though, and a few of the sto¬ 
ries lack the free- range quirk of the others, offering 
grimmer, more stoic observations of mankind when 
his world turns to crap. In "Dr. Hudson’s Secret Go¬ 
rilla” a man is saved from a car wreck by an honest to 
goodness mad scientist and has his mind implanted 
into a gorilla’s body. But when the saved (?) man suf¬ 
fers the abuses of a sadistic lab assistant his already 
teetering sanity slips away. He begins to identify 
with apes, empathizing over the indignities visited 
on them by Hollywood and society. By the time he 
breaks free it seems he is seeking revenge not so 
much for himself, but for gorillas, and it is hard not to 
believe that the metaphor here is about bigotry and 
striving against overwhelming popular misconcep¬ 
tions that can surround a person on all sides. Waldrop 
is a writer who clearly has fun mixing and matching 
reality and his own imagination. Even in the pieces 
where’s he’s aiming at some other, deeper target, 
something tinged by pathos and concern, there are 
moments of levity and signs that he is having a grand 
old time with what he’s doing. -Steve Newman 
Small Beer Press 

I Cried, You Didn’t Listen: A Survivor’s Expose of 
the California Youth Authority 
Dwight E. Abbot 

Most incarceration stories address in some way 
the cyclical nature of the System: abuse leading to 
shame; shame to revenge; revenge to punitive ac¬ 
tion; castigation to shame, and so on. It’s such a per¬ 
vasive characterization of how people become crimi¬ 
nals—and how they stay that way-that we have 
casual terms to describe it: "back in the slammer,” 
“prison’s revolving door,” etc. Few stories, however, 
so forthrightly and horrifically express just how in¬ 
jurious and inescapable a cycle this is as Dwight Ab¬ 
bot’s autobiography I Cried, You Didn’t Listen. Abbot 


was first committed to the care of the state, when, 
at a young age, his parents were injured in an auto 
accident and his alcoholic aunt proved incapable of 
caring for him and his siblings. Institutionalized be¬ 
hind the walls of the California Youth Authority-an 
agency that spends over $400 million annually to in¬ 
carcerate children—Abbot immediately experienced 
severe physical, sexual, and psychological abuse. At 
the age of nine, he was socialized into a system domi¬ 
nated by violence and victimization where sexual as¬ 
sault (both by fellow wards and predatory guards), 
racial stereotypes, and gang fights were the norm. 
Here, if you did not assimilate, you often did not sur¬ 
vive. Once entrenched in this system of retributive 
justice-to the point he becomes one of the toughest 
boys, even designated “dorm captain”—it is impossi¬ 
ble for Abbot to break out of his situation. He’s trans¬ 
ferred from juvenile hall to a boys’ home to a series of 
successively more severe institutions and eventually 
to federal prison (when he’s only 17). He makes one 
failed escape attempt after another, subjecting him¬ 
self to extreme injury. More than anything, Abbot’s 
story demonstrates that despite whatever circum¬ 
stances initially cause authorities to place children in 
the CYA, once there, these young people are practi¬ 
cally guaranteed a lifetime of incarceration. Indeed, 

I Cried conveys the cycle of criminal behavior in its 
most vicious form. When a CYA counselor rapes him 
on his third night in juvenile hall, Abbot immediately 
retreats into himself emotionally and is ashamed to 
discuss the situation with anyone, including his fam¬ 
ily. This incites a cycle of shame, aggression, and pun¬ 
ishment; it may also explain the emotional distance 
with which he recounts sickening acts of brutality, 
committed to him and by him, while growing up be¬ 
hind bars. The CYA is now called the Department of 
Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Division of Juvenile 
Justice. As the book’s introduction points out, how¬ 
ever, this new title (a gesture toward reform on the 
part of Governor Schwarzenegger) doesn’t change 
the tragic fact that today’s institutions are still rife 
with mistreatment, leading to extremely high re¬ 
cidivism rates. Dwight Abbot’s story—originally a 
prison diary written on toilet paper then a widely 
circulated underground document and now, at last, 
a book-serves as a desperate plea for the reform of 
the juvenile justice system. As difficult of an account 
it is, I Cried demands to be heard. -Laura Pearson 
AK Press 

Darker Than the Deepest Sea: the Search for 
Nick Drake 
Trevor Dann 

Many of us discovered Nick Drake when some cooler 


friend played his albums, surprising us with music 
we felt we’d always known. We fell hard for the 
songs themselves, and later for the mystery of 
Drake’s brief life. And for us, the idea of knowing 
all there is to know about Drake is at once tanta¬ 
lizing and so intimate as to feel almost unseemly. 
Drake died in 1974 at the age of 26. He either over¬ 
dosed on prescription antidepressants or commit¬ 
ted suicide to escape the addiction and depres¬ 
sion that made it increasingly impossible for him 
to function. But in the last five years of his life he 
created three haunting albums that feel timeless. 
One of Drake’s strengths as an artist is that, though 
his lyrics are sometimes vague and immature, they 
are startlingly raw and naked, giving one a sense 
of intimacy with him that a conventional biogra¬ 
phy could never provide. Dann’s book is plagued 
by problems that any Drake biographer would 
encounter. Drake was notoriously shy and avoided 
live performances. He conducted only one diffident 
interview during his lifetime, and seems to have 
revealed little to anyone of his interior life. How¬ 
ever, strong biographies have been written about 
difficult subjects, and Dann could have written an 
account that drew the reader in to the challenges of 
investigating Drake’s life. Instead, he focuses main¬ 
ly on the well-researched details of Drake’s life: 
the when and where of every show and recording 
session, his schoolmaster’s recollections, the trips 
he took with friends. He offers his own opinions on 
the tricky questions -was it suicide or accidental 
overdose, who did he sleep with, was his depres¬ 
sion and decline the result of addiction and mental 
illness or childhood trauma and professional dis¬ 
appointment- very briefly in his eight-page after¬ 
word, giving the book a limp and almost apologetic 
coda instead of a satisfying summation. There is 
a cool reticence and propriety laced throughout 
Dann’s book. And since Drake is a cipher, he invari¬ 
ably becomes a ghostly image for us to project on. 
The only place Dann invests himself as a writer is 
in the book’s exhaustive discography, packed with 
information on musician lineups, the tunings Drake 
chose, and speculations on the origins of the lyrics. 
Here is the heart of Dann’s interest, and the heart 
of the book. Though, sadly, not the heart of Nick 
Drake.— Eiren Caffall 
Da Capo Press 

The Sandman Papers: An Exploration of the 

Sandman Mythology 

various authors, edited by Joe Sanders 

Neil Gaiman’s Sandman has been an enormously 
popular comics series since its inception, especially 


among students and teachers of myriad disciplines. 
An essay collection such as The Sandman Papers 
has long been desired by the series’ fans. This book 
should be enough to satiate the demands of most of 
those fans, as it contains 12 wide-ranging essays of 
criticism, exploration, and appreciation; it definitely 
satisfied me. Overall, the essays are of an excellent 
quality. They are well-written and thought-provok¬ 
ing enough for an academic, while still being acces¬ 
sible to the casual fan. Not all of the essays, how¬ 
ever, are quality material. One in particular failed 
to live up to the excellence of its counterparts. The 
essay titled, "Illusory Adversaries,” written by K.A. 
Laity, was distinctly inferior to the other essays in 
this collection. The author attempts to examine 
gender power issues as seen in The Kindly Ones, the 
ninth volume of The Sandman that also contains 
the story’s climax. She quotes rather liberally from 
a radical feminist author and uses said author’s 
statements as facts, which then form the essay’s 
argument. The main point of the paper is that the 
entire Sandman arc (particularly The Kindly Ones) 
is supportive of a patriarchal world that denies 
women any real power. The essayist and the argu¬ 
ment fail to deliver on almost all counts, especially 
once you consider two of Gaiman’s most famous 
and popular characters: Death and Delirium. Both 
are distinctly female, and both are extremely pow¬ 
erful. In the story, The Kindly Ones, it is only with 
the help of Death that Dream is able to abdicate his 
responsibilities and set himself free. The story is not 
even remotely concerned with gender power strug¬ 
gles. Instead, it is concerned with Dream’s ultimate 
tragic flaw: his resistance to change, and with the 
consequences imposed by that flaw. The biggest 
problem in this particular essay is the author’s 
failure to recognize the story as a classical trag¬ 
edy. She concerns herself instead with incidental, 
unimportant details (like the placement of women 
on the page) and how they can be used to support 
a preconceived notion. There is another excellent 
essay in this collection that actually does concern 
itself with gender issues as explored in Sandman 
Vol. 5, A Game of You. That story is about gender 
identity and roles, and the essayist, David Brat- 
man, does an excellent job of examining them. This 
collection of literary criticism is aimed at both the 
scholarly and non-academic readership who enjoy 
Neil Gaiman’s Sandman as modern graphic litera¬ 
ture, and those who love to delve into the meanings 
of its mythology. All said and done, The Sandman 
Papers is an intelligent and thought-provoking col¬ 
lection -Robin Rainer 

Fantagraphic Books 


PUNK PLANET 135 



COM CS 


Trackrabbit #2 

Trdckrdbbit is the single most impressive self-published comic 
that I’ve seen in recent memory. It’s therefore not surprising that 
the last issue of Trackrabbit has been nominated for an Ignatz 
Award. The narrative is so artfully done and the dialogue is so 
true to life, that this could easily stand on its own as a short story. 
If anything, the artwork is the weak component. While decent 
enough, it could benefit from greater attention to detail. The 
story centers on a handful of high school buddies who are closing in on 30 but not yet coming 
to terms with adulthood. Wes is still fumbling around in film school, chasing undergrads, oc¬ 
casionally snorting coke, and hitting his mom up for cash. Gabe teaches and coaches at their 
old high school, and though he’s outwardly a model of maturity, he later admits that he’s bored 
and miserable. He also has a bowel ailment that figures prominently in the plot and results in 
this memorable bit of dialogue: “Has that ever happened to you, Wes? Have you failed to get 
laid, to even try to get laid, because you couldn’t stop the flow of blood from your asshole?” Fit¬ 
tingly enough, an old high school drama emerges as the narrative’s focal point, and, of course, 
the irritable bowel asserts itself at a most inopportune moment. (AC) 

$4, Geoff Vasile, www.geoffvasile.com 



The Bakers: Do These Toys Belong Somewhere? 

Seems like 10 years ago that Kyle Baker made me so 
damned happy with books like The Cowboy Wally 
Show and You Are Here. Do These Toys...? is a differ¬ 
ent beast, but hits some familiar notes. Mining the 
comedic highjinks of fatherhood, this isn’t entirely 
unlike something you’d read in your daily newspa¬ 
per. Only, y’know, funny. (CB) 

$18.95, Kyle Baker, Kyle Baker Publishing, ISBN 0-9747214-3-5 

Bosko #1 

Though Bosko offers a few cheap laughs, it’s unlikely 
that anyone but the most ardent punk historian will be 
interested in seeking out this comic. Bosko is the twist¬ 
ed spawn of John Holmstrom, who’s best known for 
founding Punk Magazine, which served as the ground¬ 
breaking chronicler of the then nascent 1970s New York 
punk scene. After Punk Magazine folded, Holmstrom 
launched Comical Funnies, a short-lived comics maga¬ 
zine that featured regular appearances by Bosko, but 
these days is best remembered for helping launch 
the cartooning career of Peter Bagge. This inaugural 
issue of Bosko is actually mostly a collection of older 
strips from Comical Funnies, though it does include a 
few more recent efforts. Bosko’s debaucherous antics 
seem quaint and almost antiquated compared to his 
comics heirs such as Angry Youth Comix’ Loady McGee. 
Indeed, the only instance that inspired actual laugh¬ 
ter for me was Bosko’s vile stream of vomit (replete 
with cartoon chunks, of course) during one hungover 


episode. In fact, Bosko’s single most hilarious moment 
is sadly not within the pages of the comic itself, but 
rather depicted on its back cover, which, in the course 
of promoting various Bosko-related ephemera, depicts 
the tiny image of Comical Funnies #1 showing a manic 
Bosko asking four bemused Ramones, "Hey guys! Do 
you need a bongo player in your group?” (AC) 

$4.95, John Holmstrom, PMB 675, 200 E. 10th St., NY, NY 10003, 
www.bosko.com 

Bowhunter #1 

Having broken my arm once, there was a lot I could re¬ 
late to in this mini. The whole comic was done while Chic 
had a cast on his drawing hand, which is pretty impres¬ 
sive considering the art is still tight. I cracked up during 
the ass-wiping strip; it really does feel that weird. (HD) 
$1, Chic, Self-published, www.nightlightcomics.com 

The Case of Madeline Smith 

Rick Geary presents another installment in his series 
of historical murder stories steeped in period details. 
The Case of Madeline Smith is the carefully researched 
tale of a well-to-do Victorian woman who murders her 
lover, a lowly clerk, with arsenic after unsuccessfully 
attempting to cut off their affair when she receives 
a marriage proposal from a more socially acceptable 
suitor. Geary’s pen-and-ink drawings brim with de¬ 
tails that bring the Victorian era to life in this haunting 
and fascinating hardcover graphic novel. (LG) 

$15.95, Rick Geary. NBM Publishing, 555 8 ,h Avenue. Suite 1202, 
New York, NY 10018. www.nbmpub.com 


Famous Fighters 

This unusual comic is a compendium of nearly 10 
years worth of goofy comics initially drawn by two 
friends to just amuse themselves, but now published 
to hopefully amuse others as well. Their single most 
successful creation is the Conan the Barbarian parody 
called “Barbarian Lord.” One-page “Barbarian Lord” 
episodes recur periodically throughout this issue, 
giving the reader sufficient time to adjust to its co¬ 
medic weirdness. Each episode finds Barbarian Lord 
typically confronted by some blustery foe whose bra¬ 
vado is unmercifully dispatched by Barbarian Lord’s 
fist, sword, or battleaxe. Each slaying is then followed 
by a single-panel feature entitled “Poetry of Barbar¬ 
ian Lord,” wherein BL offers a tersely worded, haiku- 
like account of some past atrocity. Though all of the 
comics are highly stylized and perfectly rendered 
(the two creators work in illustration and graphic de¬ 
sign), most of the other stories tend to overstay their 
welcome. One longer feature that mostly works, 
however, is an epic poem involving a protagonist’s 
Pong battle with Satan, which features inventive 
rhyming accompanied by wonderfully detailed illus¬ 
trations of the cloven-hoofed Beelzebub. (AC) 

$5, Tom Pappalardo & Matt Smith, www.famousfighters.com 

Fuzz & Pluck 

Making your way in the world today, they say, takes 
everything you’ve got. That’s especially true for this 
hapless duo of a pitiful teddy bear and a grumpy 
plucked rooster who are as tripped-out as they are 
all-too-human. Fuzz & Pluck riffs on the classic bud¬ 
dy/journey tale, following the pair as they escape 
from being sold into slavery, seek enlightenment with 
a monkey Zen-master, get mistaken for road-kill, and 
more. Adults will love this comic for the sly commen¬ 
taries on modern life, like the giant-carrot-wielding 
abolitionist-type hell-bent on revenge over lardy fast 
food, while kids will love the puke jokes. (LG) 

$12.95, Ted Stearn. Fantagraphics Books, 7563 Lake City Way, 
Seattle WA 98115; www.fantagraphics.com 

Hester & Galatea 

This self-published comic is an extremely well-pol¬ 
ished children’s story, but even with its slight edge 
(the main character develops an eating disorder 
for a brief span), it’s unlikely to appeal to readers 
of Punk Planet. Still, only the most stonehearted 
hipster would fail to be moved by the story’s sweet 
conclusion. School of Visual Arts cartooning under¬ 
grad Chari Pere has created a classic children’s story 
about a little girl whose imaginary friend helps her 
overcome her self-esteem issues. While this sort of 
narrative may be a bit worn, Pere throws in enough 
fantastical flourishes to sustain the reader’s interest. 


For instance, after some school hall teasing, Hester 
looks into the mirror and sees a hideous visage, but 
even afterward the formerly sweet-faced little girl 
remains transmogrified for a spell. It will be interest¬ 
ing to see if Pere succeeds in becomes eminent in the 
world of children’s books and comics. (AC) 

[No price given], Chari Pere, www.charipere.com 

I Really Stepped in It This Time #5 

I was straight-up shocked when I found out halfway 
through the book that the author just turned 25. I’m 
all for keeping things simple, but up until that point I 
was convinced this book was just the autobiographi¬ 
cal ramblings of your typical 16 year-old. I honestly 
don’t know if this is actually the way this guy thinks 
or if this is some kind of conscious dumbing-down in 
order to up that precious quotient. Either way, you’d 
have a hard time finding a more banal read. (HD) 

$2, Brian Dubin, Self-published, abracadaverr@yahoo.com 

An Inside Job #3 

Most people inwardly groan whenever a friend wants 
to share a recent dream. In a dreamscape, anything 
can happen, and perhaps it’s that very lack of dra¬ 
matic tension that makes for boring storytelling. 
But somehow dreams make for more compelling 
content in the comics medium. Eli Bishop’s collec¬ 
tion of dreams, spanning his early adolescence to his 
thirties, is surprisingly entertaining. He is talented 
at transforming the peculiar logic of dreams into 
mostly coherent storylines-even when negotiating 
the abrupt and inexplicable changes in plot and set¬ 
ting that are so common in slumberland. But what’s 
truly impressive about this issue of An Inside Job is 
the dizzying array of cartooning styles that shift to 
complement each new dream. One lightly comedic 
dream features a breezy style that wouldn’t be out 
of place in a New Yorker cartoon, while a far creepier 
dream features carefully crosshatched renderings 
on a noirish scratchboard background. While Bishop 
does succeed in relating his dreams in an entertain¬ 
ing manner, it would be a real treat to see his vir- 
tuosic cartooning abilities applied to a slightly more 
conventional narrative. (AC) 

$4, Eli Bishop, P.O. Box 40697, San Francisco, CA 94140, www. 
graphesthesia.com 

The Last Island 

A boy lives a fairly contented life alone on a tiny is¬ 
land (think the desert island from The Far Side) then 
some cell phone-wielding dude shows up and fells a 
palm tree. Tensions soar and hostilities are recipro¬ 
cated: mutually assured destruction seems inevita¬ 
ble. Meanwhile, components of some sort of aircraft 
periodically wash ashore. Free of dialogue or specific 
context, The Last Island contains the sort of very open 




A bout our reviews: We review independently produced comics. It’s true. We do it for the love of reading them and for the love of writing about them. We don’t care whether or not you buy them based on our reviews, but 
we will make every effort to give you what information we can about the comics we review that are available for sale. We review comics that are put out by the small publishing houses, comics that are put out by small art 
collectives, and comics that are put out by individuals. We’ll try to review every comic we get in-house, but sometimes that’s just not possible. Sorry. 

This issue’s reviewers are: Ari Charney (AC), Chris Burkhalter (CB), Hatuey Diaz (HD), Lisa Groshong (LG), Robin Rainer (RR) Edited by Laura Pearson 


text that could be used to comment on any number 
of topics. It’s to author Cahill’s credit that his story fits 
nearly every hypothetical context I throw at it. But I 
must say, without help from the reader’s compulsion 
to decipher or at least apply the material, The Last 
Island isn’t quite engaging, mysterious, or dynamic 
enough to stand on its own. (CB) 

$6, Alex Cahill, New Radio, www.newradiocomics.com 

The Leading Man 

As a huge fan of the James Bond movies and novels, 

I approached The Leading Man with both anticipa¬ 
tion and trepidation. After all, how do you improve 
on such classics? The Leading Man, while flawed, has 
an interesting twist to it. The comic revolves around 
a government agent whose cover is a high-profile 
actor. Good premise, but unfortunately, it fails to 
deliver. The content has a “been-there-done-that” 
feel to it, while the artwork has the look of “Hey, 
check me out! No, really, I can draw for mainstream 
comics!” The Leading Man will be a five-issue series, 
but judging from issue one, I can wait for the next 
installment. (RR) 

$3.50, B Clay Moore, Oni Press, www.onipress.com 

Little Timmy Gets Bigger 

This comic cleverly uses layout against oversized pag¬ 
es to amplify the moral-driven story of the dangers 
of getting what you think you want. The storyline is 
Spicferman-inspired in its tale of a field trip to a sci¬ 
ence lab gone wrong. Unfortunately Spidey is much 
more fun. Still, this is incredibly promising work from 
a college student to watch. (LG) 

[No price given], Jon Sperry, www.jonsperry.com 

Love, Vol. 4 

It’s hard to believe that Matt Fagan has managed to 
churn out four densely packed volumes of his Love 
series without any underground publishers giving 
him the resources to take his efforts to the next level. 
Love centers around the romance between a seem¬ 
ingly unlikely gay couple: Pokey, a skinny and be¬ 
spectacled, liberty-spiked punker, and Jack, a pudgy, 
hirsute, and poodle-haired rocker. They also hang out 
with a homeless guy who lives in a crow’s nest (con¬ 
structed by Pokey during one of his fits of hyper-cre¬ 
ativity) atop their apartment complex. If Fagan tries 
a little too hard to be weird, the humor and genuine 
sweetness behind each episode easily overcomes 
such shortcomings. In this issue, everyone works 
together to put on an illegal underground zombie 
musical. While this particular plotline was less com¬ 
pelling than Fagan’s previous efforts (all well-worth 
seeking out), most of this volume deals less with the 
musical and more with the relationships between the 
characters. Fagan does his best work when depicting 


some of the silliness that occurs between two people 
in love when in the privacy of their own home. (AC) 

Matt Fagan, 1573 N. Milwaukee Ave., PMB #464, Chicago, IL 
60622, hadmatter@hotmail.com 

Meat Cake #15 

This is one of those aesthetic ventures where per¬ 
sonality counts for at least as much as content. Don’t 
take this the wrong way; Meat Cake oozes personal¬ 
ity and boasts a devoted-even adoring-fan base. 
Most of the stories are sorta silly, but the costume 
design, set dressing, and art direction are so pre¬ 
cisely rendered that I don’t feel altogether idiotic us¬ 
ing theatrical terms to describe a pen-and-ink comic 
book. The zine-iest comic I’ve read this month, this 
issue contains short comic stories, raw food recipes, 
instructions on palm reading, and shadow puppetry 
tips. Each of these satisfies its designated function 
reliably, but moreso serves as a visit to the peculiar 
fascinations of singular multimedia cult figure Dame 
Darcy. And this is a good thing. Darcy’s drawings are 
both doodley and carefully stylized. The comic is 
peopled by fairies, inventors, sailors, zombies, talk¬ 
ing birds, mermaids, and packs of skinny scenester 
girls in lace and ruffles and eyeliner. Accurately de¬ 
scribing the world of Meat Cake is more of a task than 
I’m up to. Suffice it to say that Darcy crafts a distinct 
universe that’s strange but not entirely unfamiliar. 
Much more importantly, a universe that’s consistent 
and convincing. I don’t know that I’m in a hurry to 
read this again, yet I really can’t stop looking at it. A 
weird and wonderful little object indeed. (CB) 

$3.95, Dame Darcy, Fantagraphics, 7563 Lake City Way NE, Se¬ 
attle, WA 98115, damedarcy.com 

My Brain Hurts #3 

My Brain Hurts is an earnest teen drama set in a queer 
punk milieu, but without the WB scrub-up. I wish I 
had the previous issues to read, because I feel like 
I had to infer a lot of character information from T- 
shirts and back-patches. But that’s a bit like real life, 
no? Occasionally a tad self-righteous, this is generally 
quite likable, and the characters surprised me more 
than once, which is always a thumbs-up. It’s no De- 
grassi, but itain’t bad at all. (CB) 

$3, Liz Baillie, www.lizbaillie.com 

My Brain Hurts #4 

This well-rendered comic offers a twist on the typi¬ 
cally bittersweet adolescent experience by filtering 
it through the unique perspective of a gay punk rock 
girl. Indeed, when Kate, who sports a dyed and di¬ 
sheveled mohawk and alternates Aus Rotten and Pist 
T-shirts, chastises her new girlfriend for kissing her 
in public, she worries aloud that being gay on top of 
being outwardly punk will force her into double jeop¬ 


ardy. School of Visual Arts cartooning grad Liz Baillie 
packs quite a bit of detail into each panel, whether 
depicting the flyer plastered wall of a record store or 
the signs touting various bargains outside a super¬ 
market. Her direction of a scene is also impressive. 
When Kate is visiting a friend in the hospital, the first 
panel shows a little speech bubble emanating from 
a doorway located down a vast impersonal hospital 
corridor that hovers just over the heads of two nurses 
idling at the front desk. While such details are impor¬ 
tant for the sake of realism, it’s the simple expres¬ 
siveness of Kate’s eyes that truly form the emotional 
core of the story and provide insight into her bud¬ 
ding romance with Desdemona. At first, it’s difficult 
to imagine what Kate might find attractive in homely 
nerd Desdemona. But Baillie allows the storyline to 
reveal their complementary attributes. Seemingly 
tough punk-rock chick Kate turns out to be rather 
passive, while mousey Desdemona is not afraid to 
assert herself whether she’s asking Kate to be her 
girlfriend or defending Kate in front of a hostile high 
school lunchroom. (AC) 

$3, Liz Baillie, www.lizbaillie.com 

Neurotica #2 

The School of Visual Arts is so busy graduating talent¬ 
ed cartoonists that one can only hope that enough 
comics enthusiasts exist to accommodate all of their 
future output. Hyeondo Park, a recent SVA graduate, 
employs a hyper-realistic style (with a slight manga 
influence) that successfully captures all sorts of de¬ 
tails from a dog’s playful curiosity to the jumble of 
detritus in a typical cityscape. Neurotica has very 
little dialogue, which only serves to further showcase 
Park’s cartooning abilities. Although the first three 
stories are essentially unconnected, a surprise call¬ 
back in the third episode finds all of the characters 
united in a surprising mise en scene. The final story 
shifts to the fantastical, and is, therefore, somewhat 
less compelling, especially given that all that tran¬ 
spires is merely a Nyquil-induced nightmare. (AC) 

[No price given], Hyeondo Park, www.hanaroda.net 

The Non-Adventures of Trenchcoat and Kim #1 

The title of this book ain’t kidding: these are truly 
non-adventures. A bunch of stories of this guy, 
dressed up like a superhero, and his lady friend just 
sort of hanging out, this comic isn’t bad-the art’s 
strong-but there’s just not a lot here to bring you 
back for more. As a serial it would be entertaining; as 
a stand-alone issue, it’s kinda boring. (HD) 

$3, Chic, Self-published, www.nightlightcomics.com 

Northwest Passage #2 

This middle installment of Scott Chantler’s North- 
West Passage trilogy transports readers back to the 


treacherous world of the 18 ,h -century Canadian fron¬ 
tier. Book two picks up after a heartless Frenchman 
captures Fort Newcastle. The few survivors scrabble 
to mount a defense in this chilling story that’s even 
more powerful considering it’s true. Chantler’s emo¬ 
tionally charged drawings bring even more tension 
to an already gripping storyline. I’m on the edge of 
my seat waiting for number three. (LG) 

$8.95. Scott Chantler. Oni Press, www.onipress.com 

Polly and the Pirates #6 

Polly and the Pirates could be described as Pirates of 
the Caribbean meets the Power Puff Girls. This is not 
necessarily a bad thing. The comic is cute and fluffy, 
jumping between action and interpersonal intrigue. 
Like a cream puff, there isn’t much substance here, 
but it’s a tasty little bite. (LG) 

$2.99. Ted Naifeh. Oni Press, www.onipress.com 

Runaway Comics #1 

Runaway Comics contains a wonderful cutting-edge 
satirical humor that makes you laugh out loud. Mark 
Martin’s artwork has incredible flow to it; you can 
almost see the images moving across the pages. 
Coupled with his flair for “dramatic” sound effect 
words, Runaway Comics is one heck of an entertain¬ 
ing ride. Especially witty (although slightly outdated) 
is the story on the back page of the issue. I won’t ruin 
the surprise by telling you what it involves, but I will 
caution that anyone who’s highly sensitive to juve¬ 
nile humor and fart jokes might want to avoid this 
one. For those of you (us) who enjoy such satire, go 
get yourself an issue, and enjoy. Just don’t drink any¬ 
thing while reading. (RR) 

$3.50, Mark Martin, Fantagraphics Books, 7563 Lake City Way NE, 
Seattle, WA 98115 www.fantagraphics.com 

Siberia 

This comic is an autobiographical account of a Sibe¬ 
rian boy’s youthful passion for Cezanne, his military 
stint in Mongolia, his entry into art school, and his de¬ 
scent into alcoholism. Too steeped in cynicism to suc¬ 
cumb to the pratfalls of sentimental recollection, this 
definitely fits under the “living in the Soviet Union 
was pretty fucked up” heading. Even so, Siberia sticks 
to an anecdotal brand of storytelling that moves the 
story out of the general “our lives” and into the spe¬ 
cific “my life.” Furthermore, Nikolai Maslov threads 
his life’s landmarks on a string of small incidents, 
some of thejn unremarkable and some quite strange. 
Each development-from hearing a Deep Purple LP 
to meeting his future wife-is recounted with the 
same dulled calm, which is matched very neatly by 
Maslov’s uninked pencil-only drawings. (CB) 

$19.95, Nikolai Maslov, trans. Blake Ferris, Soft Skull Press, 
www.softskull.com, ISBN 1-933368-03-9 


PUNK PLANET 137 




RE/fuse #5 

Predominantly geared toward hardcore enthusiasts—presum¬ 
ably those with an edge on things (pun absolutely intended)— 
RE/fuse’s editors and contributors are undeniably keeping the 
quill sharp and wet. Although based in Holland, the newsprint 
has a mid-sized circulation throughout Europe, and by the looks 
of things, will be in global demand soon. In terms of music, issue 
five-aside from a piece on neo-folk artist David Rovics—won’t 
offer much if you’re not into the heavier side of sound. And 
this goes for the publication as a whole. However, for those inclined, the comprehensive 
interviews with Jacob Bannon of Converge, Kylesa, and Dutch newbies Abusive Action and 
State of Mind should spark interest. RE/fuse’s coverage of music surpasses that of most small 
to mid-sized zines, but their true worth can be found in the pieces that appeal to a broader 
audience-those focused on art and politics. By interviewing folks such as Mark Anderson 
(longstanding DC punk organizer/activist and author of Dance of Days); running thoroughly 
journalistic articles on the Clear Channel threat and the political poster art movement; and 
including an array of talented photographers and graphic artists, RE/fuse broadens the lim¬ 
ited scope of hardcore fanzinedom and spans outward, in turn becoming a legitimate voice 
for progressive and radical culture. Bonus incentives include a couple savory vegan recipes, 
an overview on the effects and usage of basic vitamins, and the to-be-expected collection of 
record and book reviews. The only slight downside would be that for the American or British 
reader, there are instances (albeit rare) in which it becomes clear that the writers may not be 
entirely fluent in English. But hey, at least most Europeans, rather than refusing bilingualism, 
have some sort of grasp on more than one language. (BM) 



COMICS 

Something So Familiar 

The only dialogue in this entire comic is suggested 
by a perky happy face issuing from a car radio. This 
silent epic depicts a man grappling with the loss of 
his wife and child in an unforgiving city that only 
deepens his despair. The stark artwork makes skillful 
use of light and dark space. For instance, a significant 
percentage of the main character’s face is comprised 
of two mournful black eyebrows that hint at his inner 
emotional abyss. Somehow the emotional release of 
the ending is happy even if the consequence of the 
character’s final action is ultimately tragic. (AC) 

$4, Alex Cahill, www.newradiocomics.com 

Streetfables Anthology #1: Weird Sister 

In Streetfables, Elizabeth Genco writes three stories 
about Daleth, a Brooklyn woman whose confidence in 
matters supernatural and spiritual earns her the com¬ 
panionship of Shock, an undead dog who helps her res¬ 
cue the innocent from the wicked-the latter here com¬ 
prised of rapists, animal abusers, paranoid madmen, 
and controlling undead boyfriends. Each story gets a 
distinct visual treatment from a different artist—Adam 
Boorman, Dash Shaw, and Jeff Zornow, with additional 
contributions from Leland Purvis and Brian Wood. The 
brevity of each story lends a welcome serial quality to 
the book, but with the exception of “Just Like That,” 
there isn't really enough space to make the most of the 
unusual circumstances of each story’s situation. (CB) 
$4.95, Elizabeth Genco, Streetfables, www.streetfables.com/ 
weird-sister 

The True Heart 

Hilary Florido presents a sparse and quiet story that 
examines the nature of the human heart. Her cool 
screen-printed cover is a great complement to the 
comic’s bold artwork. (L6) 

[No price given]. Hilary Florido. the_paper_mouse@yahoo.com 

Uptight #1 

In Uptight, Jordan Crane provides us with two new sto¬ 
ries, one original and one a continuation of his Keeping 
Two mini comics. The art is superb, but nothing can hide 
the fact that there’s just not much meat to these tales. 
The first one is a cliche that I won’t ruin for you here, and 
the second one isn’t much better. Crane takes on a non¬ 
linear narrative approach for the second story, trying 
desperately to make it more interesting than it actually 
is; unfortunately, it just ends up being confusing. (HD) 
$2.50, Jordan Crane, Fantagraphics, www.reddingk.com 

The Varicose Vernacular 

The Varicose Vernacular is like an archeological artifact 
from the detention hall of a paranoid, dookie-preoc- 
cupied, long-eradicated civilization. It’s imaginative, 
but I wouldn’t exactly recommend it to friends. (CB) 
Eamon Espey, www.usscatastrophe.com 

Wasteland #1 

For fans of post-apocalyptic stories, Wasteland will 
seem pretty basic. You have mutants, neo-primitive 
jargon, large expanses of desert, and a laconic pro¬ 
tagonist who is untrusting of others. The writing is 
crisp and the art is well done, yet it can get a little 
confusing (especially during fight scenes). There are 
plenty of unanswered questions at the end of the is¬ 
sue but not much here warrants further reading. Not 
bad... just not great. (HD) 

$2.99, Anthony Johnston, Oni Press, www.thebigwet.com 


www.refusefanzine.com 


Adjective Noun #1 

At one point, a quarter of the way into this handwrit¬ 
ten zine, Ben takes a whole page to write, "I hope the 
people at Punk Planet like this, ‘cuz than [sic] I can be 
cool.” Sorry, dude, if that’s your only hope at being 
cool, you’ve struck out. Adjective Noun is a slapstick 
bedroom project-an inconsistent jumble of ram- 
blings, line drawings, Sharpie scribblings, and two- 
sentence quips that are meant to be ironic or at least 
humorous but, unfortunately, fail at both. Examples: 
“My plane crashed and I was the only survivor. I 
kinda wish I would have died because I hate being 
on morning news shows”; or “I went to the library 
and burned every book except for Farenheit 451 [sic] 
(isn’t that ironic).” The good news is that the zine is 
both free and a quick read, so it doesn’t really cost 
anything to check out. (AM) 

Free, Ben Endres, 701 Pine St, Athens Wl 54411, 
fuzzyrecords75@yahoo.com 

Bad Ideas#6 

Following a year-long hiatus, Ann Arbor punk zine 


Bad Ideas is back. In his introduction, Josh, the edi¬ 
tor, makes a point that the zine has switched format 
(it’s a 1/2-page production) and has sworn off the 
columns and reviews, thus making it feel less like a 
poor man’s MRR and more like a community. To that 
extent, there’s a bunch of material in here that ap- 
pears-at least at first glance-to be of interest only 
to Ann Arbor punks, e.g.: a bad experience at a local 
venue; increasingly desperate and angry letters from 
an incarcerated local punk (who states that his story 
is presumably already known by everyone); an inter¬ 
view with Detroit high school punks Shitfucker; and 
reminisces about the closing down of a local punk 
house. There are a bunch of comics throughout, all 
of which are pretty good (including a funny one that 
reviews the movie Saw). Almost half of the zine is 
devoted to a reprint of Constant Agitation #5 (circa 
1997), a photo zine documenting the punk scene in 
Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. Josh states that the goal in 
this reprint is to demonstrate to current punks what 
the community was like in the past. Although this 


zine has a pretty well-defined audience-the punk 
scene in eastern Michigan-1 think anyone interested 
in creating or strengthening their local community 
could learn a lot from this well-produced publica¬ 
tion. Ladies and gentlemen, this is what a scene zine 
should look like. (AM) 

$4,807 N. Main St., Ann Arbor, Ml 48104, thisbadidea@yahoo. 
com 

Blackpool Rox II 

Blackpool Rox II, published by an English label, is a 
standard music zine featuring interviews, columns, 
reviews, and an article about copyrights in the music 
industry. The small type is difficult to read, and the 
bourbon isn’t making it any easier. This issue features 
the Great St. Louis, the Weakerthans, Zounds, Holi¬ 
days in the Sun, and Anarchy in Hollywood. (VC) 

2 pounds, Blackpool Rox II, PO Box 1025, Blackpool, FY3 OFA, 
www.jsntgm.com 

Conscious Defect #1 

Conscious Defect opens with a group of broke vaga¬ 
bonds getting kicked off an Amtrak train in some 
resort town. After roaming around for a while, the 
friends resort to scams: dumpster diving for Rite Aid 
receipts and grabbing stuff from the shelves to “re¬ 
turn,” getting a “replacement” coffee-chain latte by 
complaining about the whole milk when you specifi¬ 
cally asked for soy, and straight up shoplifting from 
a grocery store. However, it’s on his next trip with 
girlfriend Maryam in which our narrator, Spydr, pulls 
out all the stops. They start in San Francisco, where a 
unique policy provides a one-way bus ticket to va¬ 
grants trying to return home. After unfathomable 
hours on the worst Greyhound bus ever, they stop in 
Lawrence, Kansas, and spend time meeting up with 
old friends and running some more scams facilitated 
by a Kinko’s worker, unwitting churches, and poorly 
trained fast-food employees. They have to skip town 
after getting caught exploring the university steam 
tunnels, and thus head to St Louis. After touring the 
devastating effects of gentrification, they hook up 
with some more friends and run still more scams. 
According to Conscious Defect, free stuff from local 
stores are all for the taking, as long as you know what 
you’re doing. The story peters out in central Illinois, 
but the gist is that Spydr and Maryam find love amid 
vagrancy, thievery, and old friends. I personally don’t 
believe that stealing is the best weapon against the 
monolith of modern capitalism-it carries a lot of 
social collateral that makes those who don't already 
agree with you less likely to listen to your opinions— 
but if sticking it to the Man sounds romantic to you, 
give this zine a shot. (AM) 

[No price given], consciousdefect@inbox.com 

Down With the Driver #1. #2 





A bout our reviews: We make every attempt to review all the zines (or magazines) we receive, as long as they are released independently. However, despite our best efforts, not every zine ends up in here for a myriad of reasons. The zines to the 
left on the opening page-the ones with the magazine cover reproduced-are designated as "lead” reviews by the reviewer. That means it’s a zine that really stands out for them this time around. But it certainly doesn’t mean that the many 
other zines reviewed aren’t good. Finally, if a reviewer doesn’t like your zine, it’s just one person’s opinion, so don’t freak out. We’re sure you put a good deal of work into your project and that alone is worth some congratulations! 

This issue’s Reviewers: Abbie J. Amadio (AJA), Ari Charney (AC), Vincent Chung (VC), Andrew Mall (AM), Brian Moss (BM) Edited by Laura Pearson 


Suburban high schoolers need something to do, 
and I’d rather have them improving their zine skills 
through trial and error than finding a part-time job 
and corrupting what little innocence they have left. 
The crew behind Down With the Driver spends lots 
of time going to local punk tests (all of which offer 
a great selection for only $5 admission), chatting up 
the bands afterwards, and drawing simple comics. 
(Note to zinesters: you really need to ink those better, 
because they don’t copy well). There’s other stuff in 
here as well: rejected creative writing assignments, 
short movie reviews, extremely pixilated digital pic¬ 
tures, and “The 75 Best Punk/Ska/Whatever Album 
Covers (In My Opinion).” Issue #1 came with a mix CD 
of bands interviewed in the zine. (AM) 

Free, Ben Endres, 701 Pine St, Athens Wl 54411, 
fuzzyrecords75@yahoo.com 

The East Village Inky #31 

I haven’t read The East Village Inky in at least a few 
years, so it’s nice to see that Ayun is still churning out 
this lovable handwritten and hand-drawn zine about 
her adorable family (two kids and a husband). In this 
issue, she faces the horror that is American Girl. Ayun 
makes it sound like an unavoidable confrontation 
between the forces of good and evil in which she is 
caught between the socialization of her unwitting 
pre-teen daughter and the subconscious voice of 
all that is holy warning her to beware the behe¬ 
moth megacorp that swallows such children whole. 
She also includes a piece on her obsession with Da¬ 
vid Blaine’s performance art and the community 
it inspires on the streets of New York. Diversions of 
fatherly advice (on instructing your children in the 
qualitative differences between Godzilla and the In¬ 
credible Hulk) and documentary reviews round out 
this consistently entertaining zine. (AM) 

$3, $12/yr, Ayun Halliday, P0 Box 22754, Brooklyn, NY 11202, 
ayun@ayunhalliday.com, www.ayunhalliday.com 

The Fib #14 

Very much immersed in the Pacific Northwest music 
scene, Jimi Sharp interviews local movers and shak¬ 
ers such as Karl Blau, Bret Lunsford, Phil Elverum, 
Everett True, and Kimya Dawson. His interview style 
is obsessive and almost too thorough-the number 
of indulgent fan-boy asides cross the line from en¬ 
dearing to awkward. Luckily, he picks compelling and 
interesting subjects in a scene fertile with fascinating 
stories. Then there are the “unfunny” comics, which 
make me want to gouge my eyes out, punt them into 
the path of a bull stampede, and then shove collected 
floor scrapings from the Reef into my bleeding sock¬ 
ets. (VC) 

$7.50, The Fib, K Records, P0 Box 7154, Olympia, WA 98507, 
thefibzine@yahoo.com 


The Hillside Rambler #2 

Reading like an amateur rendition of a Crimethlnc. 
publication, the second issue of The Hillside Rambler 
vaguely dabbles in environmental and socioeco¬ 
nomic issues from a so-called revolutionary stand¬ 
point. For the most part, the writing is composed 
of loose rants lacking any sort of thorough detail. 
Furthermore, it tried my patience by committing 
the cardinal sin of punk zine cliches, including brief 
sections involving bus trips and coffee. Perhaps the 
unconvincing thesis of “fuck shit up” would be more 
inspiring and articulate if the Athens duo responsible 
for the zine reconsidered their anti-school stance 
(which reappears regularly in the text) and decided 
to study up on politics, economics, history, sociol¬ 
ogy, and the fundamentals of persuasive writing. 
Although I agree with a lot of the core sentiments 
in the zine, there are libraries full of material from 
scholars, political figures, activist organizers, writ¬ 
ers, blue collar workers, and punks that have written 
far more engaging critiques of the American industry 
machine and capitalism as a whole, while also offer¬ 
ing up possible solutions. (BM) 

$1, The Hillside Rambler, 100-2 Hudson Ave. Athens, OH 45701, 
emo@riseup.net 

MaHa81 

Maik’s quarter-page zines follow the anarchist ideal: 
no issue numbers, no consistent theme or format, no 
mailing address. In fact, they’re chaos come to life. 
Each issue (he sent in three) of MaHa8l contains a 
smattering of comics, drawings, cut + paste/clip art, 
poetry, and various non sequiturs apparently meant 
to inspire anti-statists and anti-capitalists alike in 
their pursuit of utopia. Each of these elements is in¬ 
teresting, but the zine lacks consistency. It’s difficult 
to tell what was Maik’s goal in creating MaHa81. (AM) 

$1.50, Maik Hasenbank, the.black.kat@web.de 

Mollusk #2 

With notes in both French and English, Mollusk is a 
bilingual art mag featuring collections of screened 
prints, charcoal drawings, photography, and mixed 
mediums from 20-plus artists residing or hailing 
from all the world’s corners. The magazine’s editors 
and publishers make no claim to a theme, but there’s 
a discernable undercurrent of a visceral obsession 
with the human body (often accentuated by sexuali¬ 
ty) as grotesque or beautiful. With such an expansive 
cast of artists, there’s an unavoidable variety in style 
and ability; thus, the preferences and knowledge 
of the individual viewer will dictate favorites. The 
Americana photographic works of Maxim Ryazansky, 
as well as the poster art of Dan Grezca, struck a chord 
in me, but it’s safe to say that Mollusk offers up plenty 
of gems. (BM) 


[No price given], Mollusk, http://frre.fr.freee.frfr.free.fr 
knack@free.fr 

My Fat Irish Ass! #7 

Some people play sports in their alone time. Others 
indulge in video games. I like to stare blankly at the 
wall. I would speculate that the man behind My Fat 
Irish Ass blacks out on an acid binge and comes to 
screaming profanities in a 24-hour Kinko’s with a 
self-drawn penis on his forehead. Somehow, he has 
a formidable stack of this zine by his side. Both un- 
apologetically profane and smartly juvenile, M FIA is 
a nonsensical foray into sharp satire slightly flavored 
with balls-to-the-wall obnoxiousness. It begins with 
serious music coverage: live show reviews of Ray Da¬ 
vies and the Riverboat Gamblers followed by a few 
album reviews. Then he introduces Ace, a crudely 
illustrated anti-hero who really does nothing but 
insult readers for ten pages. The meat of the zine 
are reproductions of Family Circus, Dagwood, Jack 
Chick, and Dennis the Menace comics, all butchered 
to depraved M FIA standards. This is toilet humor in 
top form. (VC) 

$2, PO Box 65391, Washington, DC 20035 

OngOng#3 

This is precisely the sort of carefully handmade pub¬ 
lication that elevates zines from any another medium 
to a legitimate art form. The issue comes sealed in 
a plastic bag, which functions almost as a goodie 
bag, as it surprisingly yields all manner of wonder¬ 
ful oddities. Its numerous contents are delightfully 
random: an old photo negative, a random photo of 
three hoary executives apparently cut from some 
discarded annual report, numerous unusual stickers, 
and a CD compilation featuring five different bands, 
among other things. After the playtime-style eupho¬ 
ria brought about by these items subsides, it can be 
somewhat of an effort to shift to reading mode. But 
the contents of the zine are a similarly playful mix, 
e.g.: interviews with bands like the Grey Daturas, 
surrealistic comics, drawings, photo essays, and an 
article about an old-fashioned hardware store that 
has managed to survive in the wake of big boxes like 
Home Depot. (AC) 

$6,51415th Ave. E, Seattle, WA 98112, www.ongongpress.com 

Other, #10 

This issue of Other is dedicated to all things “mon¬ 
key.” Though this subject matter may sound trite or 
silly, Other is genuinely funny, thoughtful, and varied 
in its approach to monkey-related topics-from lin¬ 
guistic ramblings to hipster analysis passing as so¬ 
cial criticism to monkey music talk. In addition to the 
monkey-centrism of the issue, there is also an article 
that explores stuttering in depth, providing a heap 
of explanations as to why stuttering occurs in some 


individuals. Also included are photography, a comic 
(that is actually funny!), and prose. Other is a well- 
written publication, and its creativity and humor are 
a rare find. (AJA) 

$10 (US), $5.95 (Canada), Other Magazine, 584 Castro St #674, 
San Francisco, CA 94114, www.othermag.org 

Photos: “Textured Focus (Control)” 

The photographer behind this color photo chapbook 
successfully mines the mundane nooks of city and 
suburbia and discovers patterns of color and tex¬ 
ture reminiscent of painters like Mark Rothko. There 
are very few photos that actually depict people in 
this chapbook. Instead, the photographer, who 
carefully snapped these shots on twelve disposable 
cameras while traveling through the US and Canada 
“by foot, plane, car, and thumb,” chooses to merely 
allude to the human presence in these abstract 
painterly photos of metal grates, wires, brick walls, 
and pipes. This work is nevertheless absorbing in 
a meditative way, and, in fact, superior to similar 
content I’ve seen gracing actual coffee-table art 
books. (AC) 

$5, Justin Rhody, PO Box 23, Bloomington, IN 47402, www. 
friendsandrelativesrecords.com 

Planet Chocko #8 

Planet Chocko is an interview zine featuring uned¬ 
ited email interviews with Percee-P “The Rhyme 
Inspector,” Joe Piglet of the Stockyard Stoics 
(whose apparent claim to fame is that he kicked 
an old friend out of the band who went on to form 
current shoegaze darlings Ambulance, Ltd.), Dick 
Manitoba of the Dictators, and Evil Presley and Willy 
B of the Independents. I’d like to say that the zine 
is “rounded out” by pictures, suggestions of cheap 
eats in NYC’s Chinatown, reviews of Asian candy, CD 
reviews, and a primer to the martial arts film direc¬ 
tor King Hu, but the truth is that if you’ve heard of 
any of the bands Chocko interviews, nothing’s going 
to round out this zine. (AM) 

$2, Chocko, 140 Belle Ave, Maywood NJ 07607 

Scrappy #1 

The first issue of Scrappy covers sewing basics and is 
filled with easy, beginner projects. The projects range 
from useful how-to’s on making curtains, skirts, and 
customizing sweaters and T-shirts to more whimsi¬ 
cal projects like making a wide variety of cozies in 
every shape and form. Scrappy is admirable in its 
dedication to one topic. As well, it presents its sew¬ 
ing instructions in a simple, stripped-down manner. 
It’s a fun craft zine, inspiring in that it appeals to 
those who have never sewed a button but may like 
to pick up the hobby some day. Also, directions are 
accompanied by simple, almost childlike illustrations 
that fit nicely with the whimsy and humor integral to 


PUNK PLANET 139 




ZINES 


present DIY craft. (AJA) 

$4 (US), $4.50 (Canada), $4.70 (Mexico), www.vidaliasparkle. 
livejournal.com, msfilms@hotmail.com 

Scribble Faster #2: The Mix Tape 

This zine is structured like a mixtape of stories about 
boys and mixtapes. At times, it's a loose narrative 
on past relationships, and other times it’s an anec¬ 
dote about the nature of the mixtape. They dovetail 
nicely. Before the advent of the CD-R, the mixtape 
was a particular art that folks took ridiculously se¬ 
riously. There were rules about what constitutes a 
good opener, how to follow up a fade out, and what 
to do with those last remaining seconds before the 
tape runs out. It was certainly prevalent in the mid- 
90s indie-emo scene, where mixtapes acted as social 
currency. Megan’s a crafted artisan in the mixtape, 
expounding on the dos and don’ts with seasoned 
authority. Otherwise, Scribble Faster is stereotypical 
melodramatic indie rock woes. It’s crush after crush 
after infatuation after crush, but none develop into 
anything substantial. Boys seem more like props than 
characters-a revolving door of nameless subcultural 
nobodies. This rehashing of romance not only proves 
tiresome, but it also breaks the mixtape rule that if 
someone puts more than five of the same genre on 
one side, none of the songs will be memorable for 
the listener. (VC) 

$2 or trade, Megan Gerrity, 955 Metropolitan Ave. #3R, Brooklyn, 
NY 11211, scribblefaster@yahoo.com, www.microcosmpublish- 
ing.com 

Scribble Faster #3 

Rather than focus on short anecdotes on boys and 
music (see review of #2), Megan concentrates on a 
broader-and wiser-theme of “escape.” By that, 
I mean what many of us restless youth were in our 
twenties: consistently transient, annoyingly fickle, 
and suffering existential fears when any kind of rou¬ 
tine set in. Most of the stories revolve around her life 
in New York City-finding her niche and self-destruct¬ 
ing when boredom strikes. All the while, she drinks 
with her friends and goes to indie rock dance nights. 
It’s a personal zine that’s a bit too introspective for 
my tastes: there’s an overabundant use of the word 
“I” and a narrative frustratingly stuck in mundane 
events-not that the latter is our protagonist’s fault, 
as she feels our claustrophobia as well. Unlike #2, the 
boy stories work in this issue, as they are fleshed out 
and given presence, which is important, as readers 
can feel the void when they depart. The stories do get 
better and that leaves me hope that Megan’s learning 
how to create tales out of her life rather than merely 
documenting her experiences. (VC) 

$2 or trade, Megan Gerrity, 955 Metropolitan Ave. #3R, Brooklyn, 
NY 11211, scribblefaster@yahoo.com, www.microcosmpublish- 
ing.com 

Signal to Noise #42 - Summer 2006 

This glossy music rag explores and exposes impro¬ 
vised and experimental music. Features in this issue 
include Atlanta’s Table of the Elements records, Glenn 
Kotche (primarily known as Wilco’s drummer, but a 
fine performer of improvised music in his own right), 
trombonist Joe Fiedler, and jazz composer Maria Sch¬ 
neider. Pages of concert, book, and CD reviews round 
out this quarterly magazine. (AM) 


$4.95,1128 Waverly, Houston, TX 77008, operations@signaltono 
isemagazine.com, www.signaltonoisemagazine.com 

Smudge 

The poetry of Dusty Rose, as put together in Smudge, 
doesn’t particularly stand out from the thousands 
of pages-filling notebooks and journals, stacked in 
closets and cluttering cyberspace—by other aspiring 
writers of this sort. Her poems read more like music 
lyric-snippets of feelings internalized and made to 
sound tough, desperate, or antagonistic. Unfortu¬ 
nately, it just isn’t enough to relate your own pathos. 
(AJA) 

[No price given], www.myspace.com/dustyrose3 

Sugar Needle #30 

This brief zine is among the most charming that I’ve 
encountered, and that’s in no small part due to its 
focus: candy and sweets. It’s sort of like a less aca¬ 
demic Beer Frame in that it reviews various candies 
and packaging but doesn’t take itself so seriously. 
For instance, one review of Garfield’s Chocobites 
wonders, “If Garfield has Chocobites, what does Odie 
have?” Their review of Gummy Bacon (yes, it may 
have streaks of fat like the real thing, but it turns out 
to be strawberry-flavored) will hopefully encourage 
a recurring feature on “meat-inspired candies.” My 
favorite find from the candy testers of Sugar Needle 
is the Polio Asado lollipop, which is made of caramel 
shaped like a roast chicken and dipped in hot chili, 
but is sadly not chicken-flavored. (AC) 

$2 or trade, Corina Fastwolf, P0 Box 66835, Portland, OR 97290 

Verbicide #17 

Verbicide is an entertaining and polished glossy 
magazine that nevertheless maintains a solid re¬ 
serve of punk attitude. Indeed, one of the four fiction 
pieces in this particular issue features the provoca¬ 
tive title “Jerking Off to Agnostic Front,” wherein a 
young gay punker has an unlikely fantasy, among 
other ruminations, about a tour van liaison with 
Agnostic Front singer Roger Miret. The centerpiece 
of this issue, though, is the extensive interview 
with porn star Tera Patrick and her rocker husband, 
Biohazard’s Evan Seinfeld. They discuss the unusual 
dynamic of their relationship, and, of course, the 
business of managing the Tera Patrick brand. In ad¬ 
dition to interviews with Mary Timony and NOFX, a 
typically freewheeling interview with Henry Rollins 
rounds out the issue. Rollins discusses the myriad 
projects in which he’s been involved, which recently 
included voiceover work for a video game render¬ 
ing of himself in Def Jam Vendetta II. According to 
the interviewer, we find Rollins’ character issuing 
beatdowns to well-known hip-hoppers. And in case 
you’re wondering, Rollins cheerfully admits that he 
was paid about $10,000 for 90 minutes of work on 
this video game. (AC) 

$3.95, www.scissorpress.com 

The Vets Gazette, #3 

The Vets Gazette is filled with articles taken from 
larger, mainly military-related publications, primar¬ 
ily the Army Times. The publisher assembles articles 
that aren’t usually covered by the mainstream press; 
many of the articles focus on the aftereffects of war, 
and, most specifically, soldiers suffering from post- 


traumatic stress disorder, which is an issue largely ig¬ 
nored by major media outlets. The Vets Gazette also 
makes more visible the parallel between the Viet¬ 
nam War and the war in Iraq. It closes with an excerpt 
from At Hell’s Gate, a novel written by Claude Anshin 
Thomas recounting his Vietnam War experience. The 
parallels may be blurry in the eyes of conservatives 
and liberals alike, but the veterans who have fought 
(and are fighting) the current war are going though 
the same horrific experiences those did in Vietnam. 
The Vets Gazette is a reminder that we still have 
lessons to be learned, that we shouldn’t forget our 
history, and that our mainstream media has been 
turning its back on the realities, the tragedies, and 
the price of war. Those aware of this have to look 
elsewhere to get the truth. (AJA) 

[No price given], Bill Price, PO Box 7001, Atascadero, CA 93423- 
7001 

Weiner Society #8 

Although there’s not much information available on 
the wordsmith behind Weiner Society- one Mr Neil 
Edgar-1 can tell you this: He’s in a prison somewhere 
in California and, by the sound of things, has been in 
and out of incarceration for a good portion of his life. 
He has an extensive knowledge of, and adoration for, 
metal and punk music. And most of all, he’s an in¬ 
credibly gifted and thoughtful writer. Serving mainly 
as a memoir of the author’s life and times, issue #8 
of Weiner Society follows Neil through his turbulent 
youth-filled with sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll, and vio¬ 
lence—into his time as a prisoner, which consists of 
more of the same. All spun seamlessly with eloquent 
introspection, Neil’s autobiographical tales of gang- 
bangers, prison system perils, queer love, punk rock, 
addiction, disease, and the quest for happiness and 
spiritual fulfillment in the harshest of places combine 
to create what is perhaps one of the strongest con¬ 
temporary accounts of criminalized counterculture 
and the American dream gone awry. (BM) 

[No price given], Neil Edgar, Weiner Society c/o Panorama, 
109 Arnold Ave., Cranston, Rl 02905 www.freewebs.com/ 
fanorama/ 

Zine World #23 

Finally! The new issue of Zine World has been almost 
an entire year in coming (there have been two review 
supplements since issue #22). For the uninitiated, the 
bulk of Zine World consists of reviews, including that 
of zines (they review every zine they receive) and 
other small-press publications-magazines, books, 
DVDs, whatever you have. These reviews are known 
for being critical and sometimes caustic; hence, the 
letters section is a humorous collection of responses 
from zinesters who feel like they got the short end 
of the staff. Also included are news items of inter¬ 
est to zinesters and zine readers, address changes, 
free classifieds, and more. Zine World is a truly valu¬ 
able—if infrequent-resource to the zine community 
and the underground at large. Ignore it at your own 
peril. (AM) 

$3 (US), $4 (Canada), $5 (elsewhere), Jerianne, PO Box 330156, 
Murfreesboro TN 37133, www.undergroundpress.org 


140 PUNK PLANET 



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HADES and SILENT 
CRISIS CENTER 


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Visit: www.atthespine.org 
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Horsehair Everywhere!, 
Experiment w/Cadee, 
Nashville Guitar Army 

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Chicago's Irfamo- 

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No frills, full service basement recording studio 
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RAND I RUSSO 


(BtuHit j£dc.e a J&uty 


All right. The Fix. It's about time somebody put this back out. 
The Effigies, Fix, and Toxic Reasons were the first rumblings 
of a true punk/HC underground explosion between the coasts. 
The Fix were a darker hardcore invention than the DC or OC 
sound or even Discharge. We played with them three times - 
twice in San Francisco and once at an oversize movie theater in 
Fresno. Live they came off like a sonic jet engine or a blender. 
The harder core than thou crowd just stood there confused. 
Craig called me and asked if Alternative Tentacles could put 
out a 7-song 12” of what became the “Jan’s Rooms” ER 
Unfortunately we had to decline because things were in disarray 
and we didn’t have the money. Big regret. I miss ’em to this day 

-Jello Biafra, DKs/Alternative Tentacles, etc. 

January 2006 


"Randfs someone to keep your eye on...Ait she needs 
is one gig opening up for someone tike Cat Power and 
her fame is pretty much guaranteed.” * The Village Voice 


Hope: And Songs 
to Sing 


The Wait and 
Wonder 


“melodic rock beauty” - The Big Takeover 


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www.myspace.com/randirusso 


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see 

also 

Where to find more information 
about this issue’s features. 


interviewed this issue: 

Joe Lally 

For more information on Joe Lally's amazing 
career visit www.joelally.com. or 
order From There to Here directly from 
Dischord Records at: orders@dischord.com or 
via the still-thriving US Mail Service: 

Dischord Records 
3819 Beecher St. NW 
Washington, D.C. 20007-1802 USA 

Frida Berrigan 

Join the nonviolent, online community at www. 
jonahhouse.org, where you can read some of 
Berrigan’s powerful and thoughtful writings 
about war resistance. 

Check out the World Policy Institute’s Arms 
Trade Resource Center where she is a Senior 
Research Associate at www.worldpolicy.org/ 
projects/arms/index.html and the War Resisters 
League, online at www.warresisters.org or in 
the actual world at: 339 Lafayette Street, New 
York, NY 10012. 

Dash Shaw 

The cartoonist has his own website—www. 
dashshaw.com—but you can order his new 
book The Mother's Mouth from: 

Alternative Comics 
503 NW 37th Avenue 
Gainesville, FL 32609-2204 


Jeremy Enigk 

Visiting the gorgeous but strange Lewis 
Hollow Recordings website at 
www.lewishollow.com may raise more ques¬ 
tions than it answers, but you can order 
Enigk’s latest solo project, World Waits, there. 

Freedom Archives 

Visit the dusty shelves of long-unheard history at 
The Freedom Archives 
522 Valencia Street 
San Francisco, CA 94110 

Or just call them up and tell them they’re doing 
a great job: (415) 863-9977. 

Make sure to check out the Vinyl Project and 
their other amazing releases, available from AK 
Press (www.akpress.org) or Alternative 
Tentacles (www.alternative tentacles.com). 

Tara Jane O’Neil 

Tara Jane O’Neil’s latest CD is In Circles, 
out now from Quarterstick Records, PO Box 
25342, Chicago, IL 60625. (Or toll-free 
mailorder US Only: 1-800-3-TOUCHU.) Her 
own website is at www.tarajaneoneil.com, and 
there you can find formation about previous 
releases, art projects, and all the other amazing 
stuff she does. 


articles this issue: 

Dirty Talk 

If you haven’t ever cum across her work (get 
it?), Annie Sprinkle offers a really great entry¬ 
way into sex-worker activism. Check out her 
website at www.annieprinkle.org. 

Find out more about the documentary Live 
Nude Girls Unite, which tracks the Lust Lady 
employees' decision to join the Service 
Employees International Union, at 
www.livenudegirlsunite.com. 

For the more advanced practitioner of sex- 
worker activism, check out one of Mistress 
Minax's classes (or maybe just her website) at 
www.mistressminax.com. 

Factories Behind Bars 

Follow up on the work of Van Jones at the Ella 
Baker Center for Human Rights at: ellabak- 
ercenter.org. There you can sign up for email 
alerts, find out how to volunteer, or just donate 
money. 

Off With Their Heads 

Although it's a bit out of date, (a new website 
is said to be coming in 2004!) Street Rec 
and several related projects have an online 
presence at: counterproductiveindustries.com. 
You may even be able to order the Retooling 
Dissent video at info@counterproductiveindust 
ries.com. Try it! 






msound 

.com 


SABERTOOTH TIGER 


THE SHINS 


PARTY LINE 


/ 1 

<lr 

—s i C3 

1 -• 

\ i 



kfttJtLLX 


Extinction Is Inevitable 

L.A. trio SABERTOOTH TIGER's debut 
album is a pedal -tothe metal blast of 
pissed-off hardcore punk. 


Zombie Terrorist 

CIA-sponsored aliens smoking joints with 
evil dictators. Ridiculous? Yes. Realistic? 
Yes! Featuring ex-Bratmobile/varsity-league 
feminist ass-kicker Allison Wolfe. Recorded 
at Inner Ear Studios. Blast windows DOWN, 
fists UP! 


Wincing The Night Away 

To play music for a long time, you have to 
surprise the people that love you—while also 
surprising yourself. Wincing the Night Away is 
the Shins 7 third full-length album. It’s also 
the sound of a band growing up and out. 







1 


GSL 


RETARD DISCO 


SUB POP 




VARIOUS ARTISTS 
Thankful 

Celebrating ten years and 100 releases, 
Temporary Residence drops this stunning 
compilation of brand new, previously 
unreleased tracks from MONO, Caroline, 
The Ladies, Eluvium, The Drift, Sleeping 
People, The Anomoanon, By the End of 
Tonight, Lazarus, Cex & Nice Nice. 

TEMPORARY RESIDENCE LTD. 


ROB CROW 

Living Well 

Pinback frontman goes solo and makes the 
best Pinback record that Pinback never 
made. It has the hooks and the heart that 
he’s famous for, with a refined focus unlike 
anything he’s ever done before. 

TEMPORARY RESIDENCE LTD. 


VICE 


BOREDOMS 


Super Roots 

Six Boredoms SUPER ROOTS titles from the 
'90s, all but one available in the US for the 
first time. Follow as the band evolves from 
hyperactive avant-noise to tranced-out 
percussive bliss... 



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SHOOK ONES 

Facetious Folly Feat 
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Out Now! on Revelation Records 
Seattle's newest residents and Bellingham's 
favorite sons, SHOOK ONES, have allowed their 
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Feat, charging through these eleven new songs 
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V/A 

Brats On The Beat: Ramones for Kids 
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THE RAMONES' timeless classics have been 
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LION OF JUDAH 

Universal Peace 
YB24: CD/LP 

Out Now! on Youngblood Records 
The debut full-length from D.C.'s LION OF 
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things I 
predicted 
George W 
Bush 

would do in 
2006 but 


thanlrfiillif ZineS ffOUn 

indlUtTUliy concerts i missed it 


didn’t songs I listened 


Listen 
Songs of; 
According 
Com 


Things Punk Rock Could (Re) llOII-StOP that W< 
Learn from the Open Source _ _ « ^ _ 

Software Movement released in 200C 


recipes I learned 
invented in 2006 


Trends I tried so hard to resist in 20 


LPs I bought this year thi 


Brats On The Beat: Ramones for Kids 

GK129: CD 

Out Now! on Go-kart Records 
THE RAMONES' timeless classics have been 
"kidified" by the GABBA GABBA HEY SINGERS. 
Each song features kids singing all the choruses 
and background parts. Guest lead vocalists 
include: Jack Grisham (TSOL), John Feldman 
(GOLDFINGER), Blag Dahlia (THE DWARVES), 
Nick Oliver! (QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE), Keith 
Morris (CIRCLE JERKS, BLACK FUG) and Josie 
Cotton (80's hit "Johnny Are You Queer Boy"). 


V/A 

Under Pressure Video Series 01 


Events, Web Sites I’m Obsessed With 
People, 

Maces, |j ve shows that 

Records, 

books, and reinvigorated m 

Cultural 

Landmaifcs and in tlte State Of It 

Touchstones of - . 

2006 and people in g< 

Things I 

things I read 

Stupid/disturbing/offensive Sex Pr< 

bands of 2006 thrift 

found 

that most people (every 
will pretend they wel, ’ s 


UNDO!: DVD 


Out Now! on Under Pressure 
Under Pressure Video Series 01, Presented by 
Bridge Nine Records. The premiere issue of this 
hardcore documentary video series features.- 
BETRAYED: Bio/R.I.P., Jamie Sciarappa: Monster 
Madness, and PROJECT X: The Ultimate Straight 
Edge Band. Produced, directed and edited by 
Anthony "Wrench" Moreschi of TEN-YARD FIGHT. 
See interviews, footage, photographs and video 
bios featuring members of TERROR, CHAMPION, 
CARRY ON, CIV, GORILLA BISCUITS, YOUTH OF 
TODAY, SIDE BY SIDE, SHELTER, JUDGE, SLAP¬ 
SHOT and SSD. 


never liked this sugar-rai. 
time next year, if 
they even admit to 
it now 


reasor 
the Mil 
Comm 
Act of 
is a mo 
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passes 
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history